The State government’s directives making institutional quarantine mandatory for people coming from Kerala to Karnataka is fraught with difficulties in implementation in the border districts especially with regard to daily wagers and truckers.
While educational institutions or industries are vested with the responsibility of quarantining their students and staff respectively, there is a lack of clarity on dealing with daily wagers. who seek employment in agricultural fields or truck drivers who ferry perishable commodities and commute in both the directions on a daily basis.
Dakshina Kannada district administration has been quarantining outstation students and teaching/ non-teaching staff for a week and allowing them to the campus only if they are tested negative for COVID-19. The same measure has now been adopted by the State government in the revised guidelines for surveillance, containment and caution of COVID-19 released on August 30.
But in the case of students and those working in educational institutions, who commute daily between Kasaragod district and Dakshina Kannada district, are asked to undergo RT-PCR test once every week.
For over several weeks, district administration has made it mandatory for employees returning from short visits to their home towns in Kerala and Maharashtra to undergo one-week quarantine and report to duty only if they are tested negative for COVID-19.
District COVID-19 Nodal Officer H. Ashok said the institutions, to a large extent, have been complying with the norms laid down by the State government.
In the last one month, nearly 650 students tested positive following week-long quarantine. “We issued notices to three institutions after finding lapses in implementing COVID-19 guidelines and they have now agreed to strictly comply with norms,” said District Health and Family Welfare Officer Kishore Kumar.
In Chamarajanagar district, the authorities have been insisting on RT-PCR negative report from anyone entering the district from Kerala or Tamil Nadu even if they are fully vaccinated.
But the State government’s new rule on compulsory institutional quarantine if travelling from Kerala is proving to be a challenge. For, there is hardly any movement of industrial workers or students to and from Kerala given the general backwardness of Chamarajanagar.
But there is daily movement of nearly 200 to 250 trucks carrying vegetables and other perishables from Moolehole check post in Bandipur which connects to Wayanad. The second entry point is at Chikkanahalla which connects to Gudaluru in Tamil Nadu and Mallapuram and Kozhikode in Kerala where another 300 trucks pass daily and hence institutional quarantine of truck drivers and agricultural workers is perceived to be impractical.
“As far as truckers are concerned we insist on RT-PCR negative report whose validity is only for 15 days besides subjecting them to RAT each time they enter. But if they fail to carry the RT-PCR negative report, we turn them back,” said a senior official in the district administration.
Though there is movement of agricultural workers in both the directions, the authorities said most tend to stay in camps till the completion of the agricultural season. But in case they enter Chamarajanagar the local authorities insist on RT-PCR negative report even if they are fully vaccinated apart from subjecting them to RAT.
The authorities in Kodagu also follow similar norms but said they will seek clarification from the Government on institutional quarantine of daily wagers and truckers.
