'What Kerala thinks today, India may think tomorrow.' But here is the problem...

State erred in testing and enforcing quarantine, say experts.
In Thiruvananthapuram, the doctors at the General Hospital sent back a person who returned from Italy without taking his swabs. (Photo | TP Sooraj, EPS)
In Thiruvananthapuram, the doctors at the General Hospital sent back a person who returned from Italy without taking his swabs. (Photo | TP Sooraj, EPS)

KASARGOD: Abdul Sattar, 47, a native of Thalangara in Kasaragod, tested COVID-19 positive on March 21. Ten days before that, he returned from Dubai. Since Dubai was emerging as a COVID-19 hotspot, he went to the General Hospital in Kasaragod to give his swab for testing. He was sent back because he showed no symptoms.

"After a day, I went again but was sent back again," he said. Disheartened, Sattar went to Kasturba Medical College in Mangaluru for a routine full-body check-up. He asked the doctors to test him for Coronavirus too. The result turned positive.

Mujeeb Rahman, 32, his wife Nafeesa, 26, and Rahman's nephew Shafi, 27, -- all natives of Kalnad in Kasaragod -- landed at Mangaluru airport on March 19. They flew in from Naif, a COVID-19 hotspot in Dubai. The young family was aware of the risk they were posing to the public. So, they covered themselves up, wore masks and gloves and maintained a distance.

Rahman called his relatives and asked them to bring two cars -- one for them to drive back and the other for the relatives to return. He asked his aged parents to move into his brother's house, so that they will have an entire house to remain in quarantine. The relative packed food and kept in one of the cars so that the trio needn’t stop anywhere to eat. Even with all the precautions, the system failed them. The General Hospital in Kasaragod and the District Hospital in Kanhangad refused to take their swabs because they did not show any symptoms.

"The third time, we created a ruckus and another man from Ukraine called up the collector, after which they took our swabs," said Rahman. The three persons tested positive later.

In Thiruvananthapuram, the doctors at the General Hospital sent back a person who returned from Italy without taking his swabs. Though he came in an ambulance, he returned in an autorickshaw. He stopped by a juice bar on his way back home to Vellanad. Across the state, many NRIs reported that the government was not testing them for COVID-19.

Kasaragod Collector D Sajith Babu categorically said the doctors would test only those with symptoms such as fever, cold, runny nose or throat pain. It was a flawed decision and potentially exposed many people in the state to the virus, said Dr Sreekumar Ramachandran, chairman of the Research Cell of the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

The government was ill-advised by the Indian Medical Council of Research (ICMR), he said. In terms of the capacity to spread, this novel coronavirus is the most powerful in human history, he said. In the first five days of infection, the virus establishes itself in the host body.

"Forty per cent of the transmission happens between the fifth and the 14th day, when the infected person will show no symptom," said Dr Ramachandran. By the time a person shows symptoms -- that is after 14 days -- he would have infected many others, he said. He said the government erred in treating COVID-like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and H1N1, where the symptoms start showing in the first five days.

The IMA recommended rapid testing for COVID-19, the state government took a favorable decision on Saturday. "This government is hesitant in taking decisions," said a consultant of the LDF government. A Delhi journalist famously said 'what Kerala thinks today, India must think tomorrow', he said. "But the problem is Kerala is two weeks late," he said. He said the government should not have hesitated in putting off the examinations for Class X and XII despite demands from teachers' association.

"Now we hear that a student who got infected from her father in Kasaragod wrote two examinations, exposing many other students and teachers," he said. There could be many such cases, he added. The government trusted the public in quarantining themselves at their houses, instead of going in for a mass testing, said a government doctor in Kochi.

"But when it realised that self-quarantining is failing, it should have immediately gone for a forced quarantining at a government facility or a total lockdown," he said. "It was just a matter of managing the four airports in the state," he said. Dr Ramachandran said China brought the pandemic under control by quarantining all the patients in hotels and lodges.

"We could have done that in the first place. Eventually, the government is doing the same thing now," he said. "But the damage has been done," he said.

Now, Dr Ramachandran said, everybody is a suspect. "The only way to beat the virus is by containing it in our own body and not letting it spread. For that, everybody will have to lock down themselves," he said. Doctors said Kerala has only one month to do that.

"Everybody should stay indoor in April. In May, the rains will come, the temperature will fall and humidity will rise. An ideal condition for the virus," said Dr Ramachandran. The social responsibility of Keralites is on test, he said.

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