To make sure that people in home quarantine strictly adhere to the guidelines of the Health Department, the district police have strengthened operations of the motorcycle brigade in Kottayam.
According to District Police Chief G Jaidev, 96 motorcycle units have been deployed across the district to check the areas where people are undergoing home isolation. “The motorcycle brigades started intensive surveillance activities on Saturday and these will continue on Sunday as well. More than 2,000 people are in home quarantine in the district and the brigades will roam these areas multiple times. Cases will be registered if anyone is found violating the quarantine directives,” he said.
The action is in view of the frantic calls received by the health authorities from different parts of the district over violation of quarantine norms by people.
Driver, youths arrested
The police on Saturday booked cases against a bus driver hailing from Ernakulam and two youths who had arrived from Bengaluru for violating the quarantine guidelines. According to the police, a contract carrier bus, which had brought 25 Keralites from Bengaluru to Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha districts, dropped the youths, hailing from Adoor and Nedumudi, in Kottayam town on Friday evening. The youths then approached the Kottayam East police station and the office of the DPC, seeking passes to go to their native districts. On a direction by the DPC, the police registered a case and shifted them to an isolation centre in Athirampuzha.
Intensifying surveillance, the district health officials will start collecting serum samples those who have returned from abroad from Sunday. According to authorities, 261 persons have landed in the district under the Vande Bharat Mission since May 7. The authorities will commence the sample testing since the first few batches have completed the incubation period of infection. Before letting them go home, it has to be ensured that they are not infected.
Earlier, a 29-year-old woman and her child who had returned from Kuwait tested positive and are undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital.
