COVID-19: Kerala Receives Gulf Returnees With Well-prepared Facilities

On the night of May 7, an Air India Express landed at the Kochi international airport evacuating Malayalees from Abu Dhabi. Though lakhs of Non-resident Keralites have applied through the Norka registration form, priority has been given to pregnant women, people whose visa date had expired, elderly people, people who depend on Kerala for treatment, etc. 

Susan Baby, a 41-year-old pregnant woman, was one among the passengers. She works as a nurse in Abu Dhabi and had booked tickets for April 16. But the COVID-19 pandemic and the following lockdowns across the world curtailed her plans. When she had registered in Norka, she was at 31,100th place. However, the nurse whose due date is on May 28 got the chance to get home in the first flight itself. 

“When I landed here, the officials from Health Department and Police Department have taken note of my health. I wonder about the care of our system and I am proud of this journey as well. An ASHA worker has contacted me over phone and I have been directed to contact the Government Medical College in Kottayam for any health related issue. As of now I am doing well under home quarantine,” she said from her home in Vakathanam in Kottayam district. 

The state government has made all arrangements to accommodate the returnees. Since there were no tests available at the Riyadh airport and others, tests are being done when they land at the airports across the state. The passengers undergo thermal scanning at the aerobridge. The passengers who have any symptoms are being taken to hospitals in ambulances. Others are being taken to quarantine centres in their districts in Kerala State Road Transport Corporation buses which are facilitated by the government. Each bus contains only 30 passengers. While, pregnant women and kids are allowed to go home and they are advised to observe strict quarantine at their homes. 

In the quarantine centres, government provides all facilities including food and other necessary things. When the passengers step out of airport, they are given BSNL sim cards. So that doctors and officials from Health Department can keep in touch with the people in quarantine on regular basis. 

Two flights from Abu Dhabi and Dubai had arrived in the state on Thursday with 340-odd people, including 49 pregnant women and infants. A flight from Riyadh landed on Friday with 139 people, including 10 people from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Three flights are also scheduled for Saturday- one from Muscat, one from Kuwait and another one from Qatar. 

Also read: Under Pandemic Garb and Modi Sanction, States Unleash War on Workers

Similar processes are being conducted in all airports across the state. On Friday, a special flight carrying 152 passengers, including 20 Kozhikode natives, landed at Karipur Internation Airport in Kozhikode. 

Meanwhile an Indian warship, INS Jalashwa has started from Maldives on Saturday morning carrying 698 Indians and Kochi seaport is ready to receive these passengers as well. 

As of now, at least, 86,679 Keralites stranded in other states have registered with the Norka web portal to return to the state.

"Of this, 37,810 (43.71%) have registered from Red Zone districts. Over 45,800 passes have been issued of which 19,476 are from red zone districts," said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, adding that those who are coming from other states must have the necessary permission from that state and also register with the Norka website in order to enter Kerala.

On migrant workers, he said that till Thursday, 24,088 guest workers from Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal have left Kerala for their respective states in 21 trains.

100 days of fight against Covid-19

On the 100th day since the first case was reported in Kerala on January 30, CM Vijayan said that the state has flattened the COVID-19 curve, with only a lone case reported on Friday and just 16 people remained under treatment for the infection.

Vijayan also cautioned that the state needed to be careful to avoid another wave of the deadly virus, but asserted it was ready to fight it in such an event. The state reported a solitary positive case, taking the total to 503 while ten more people recovered on Friday, further bringing down the active cases to 16, the CM told reporters.

"Now, two months later (after second wave of infections hit the state in March), the curve has been flattened. As we have completed 100 days since the country's first COVID case was detected from Kerala, we have a record of better recovery rate in the whole world," Vijayan said.

Also read: Blood on Tracks: Railways Yet to Compensate,May Term Incident as ‘Trespassing’

The fresh case on Friday was a person with kidney ailment who came to Ernakulam from Chennai. The country's first COVID-19 case was reported on January 30 when a medical student from Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, tested positive in Thrissur. The second wave of the virus had hit the state during March when a three-member family returned from Italy.

With the start of repatriation of the stranded Non-resident Keralites (NRKs), mainly from Gulf nations, Vijayan said that "there is need to ensure that a third wave does not happen in the state and all efforts are being taken to ensure this”.

Though the positive cases have reduced, there cannot be any room for any complacency, he said. Kerala has been earning accolades from many quarters for the manner in which it dealt with the pandemic and restricting deaths due to the virus to just three so far while containing its spread.

The state has made elaborate arrangements to screen the returning expatriates and put them under quarantine. The CM further added that the state government has decided to appoint 3,770 temporary health workers in the Health Department including 704 doctors, 100 specialists, 1,196 nursing staff among others.

Addressing reporters, Vijayan expressed solidarity with a worldwide movement on open source COVID-19 projects. "Many corporate companies are trying to develop cure, medicine and equipment for the COVID-19 pandemic and they will market it for huge price after gaining the patent rights. An alternate is being formed as part of an open source COVID projects to fight against it. Kerala expresses solidarity with such a movement," he said.

Also read: ‘Suspension of Labour Laws Undemocratic, Unconstitutional...Will Create More Unemployment’

(With inputs from PTI)