Impressed with the protocol followed by Kerala in handling the Coronavirus threat, the Telangana government has sent a team to the state to study the model.
The country’s first three cases of Covid-19 were detected in Kerala, when students pursuing a medical degree in China’s Wuhan territory, the epicentre of the virus outbreak, returned home.
All three patients have since been successfully treated and discharged as the state mounted an elaborate protocol to isolate the affected people and prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
The Telangana team, which includes 12 doctors, is scheduled to visit the specially erected isolation wards and hold discussions with those who manned the state level control room. A Bengaluru-based IT professional from Hyderabad is among the 29 cases that have been tested positive on an all-India basis.
The state had won praise from the United Nations agencies and the World Health Organisation for its success in handling the Nipah virus in two successive years.
The state health authorities put in place a multi-tiered and integrated system, involving immigration officials and police to panchayats and local-level health volunteers, Passengers arriving from abroad were given a health card each in which they had to list their travel details and health condition. Before proceeding to immigration, they would need to get the details checked and stamped at a special desk.
For passengers from China, Hong Kong or other coronavirus-affected regions, the protocol was to shift them to a transit room where their body temperature was measured.
Each of Kerala’s five airports was linked to ambulance and emergency-response services in district hospitals. Any passenger with fever, cough or sore throat was to be immediately shifted to the linked hospital and from there a message passed to the district medical office.
This office immediately contacted the family members of the person and informed them about the isolation of the passenger. If the travellers had no symptoms, they were allowed to go home, subject to strict external surveillance by a health team.
Immediately after the first case was detected, panchayat-level bodies across the state were issued a directive on infection-control and home isolation protocols.
In a circular issued by the local self-government department, all local bodies were directed to prepare a list of people coming from places affected by the virus and of those in contact with such people. Multiple helplines were set up.
The campaign focussed on basic hand and respiratory hygiene, including using a tissue or a flexed elbow to cover nose and mouth while coughing or sneezing. People were advised to avoid handshakes and close contact with anyone suspected to have been infected.
The standard prevention protocol also included use of personal protective equipment, depending on risks. All private medical institutions, labs and consulting centres were asked to strictly adhere to the recommended infection protocol.
Around 215 mental health teams fanned out to contact 2,600 people in home quarantine to alleviate anxiety and also to counsel family members and people in the neighbourhood.
The use of breathalysers by traffic police was temporarily suspended and police personnel were directed to use other methods such as medical examination to detect drink driving.
Blood banks in all districts were asked to conduct double screening of donors and stop collecting blood samples from people who have recently arrived from abroad or those with a history of travel to foreign countries.
Simultaneously, district police chiefs initiated strict action against those found circulating fake news relating to the virus outbreak on social media.