The Health Department has warned that it will not hesitate to take legal action against persons who do not divulge their history of travel to or contact with nations from where COVID-19 has been reported and later turn out to have contracted the potentially lethal virus.
Health Minister K.K. Shylaja said the Health Department’s priority now was to provide the best of care to the COVID-19 patients. But those keeping their travel history a secret just to avoid personal inconvenience, were committing a crime to society and would definitely invite further action, she said. The family that returned from Italy had endangered the entire State by their irresponsible behaviour.
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The Minister said it would help the Health Department trace all possible persons who might have come into contact with the family. The family had boarded the Qatar Airways flight (QR 126 – Venice-Doha), which had landed in Doha at 11.20 p.m. on February 28. They spent about one-and-a-half hours in transit at Doha airport, before boarding flight QR 514 Doha-Kochi, to reach Nedumbassery international airport at Kochi on February 29 at 8.20 a.m. From there, their daughter’s family, including a four-year-old child, dropped them in their car at their house in Pathanamthitta.
Ms. Shylaja hoped that any person in Kerala who might have returned by these flights would get in touch with the Health Department immediately (contact DISHA 1056, State COVID 19 control cell 0471-2302160/ 90723 15151) and seek advice. “The local bodies and the community should report the arrival of any person from abroad in their neighbourhood to the Health authorities,” the Minister said.
The Health Department could meet all exigencies but the situation called for responsible behaviour from the community, she said. With new COVID-19 cases being reported in the State, the Health Department decided to reinstate the 28-day home quarantine rule, which it had relaxed last month to 14 days.
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