COVID-19: Kerala plans reverse isolation to protect vulnerable sections
On April 3, Kerala successfully overcame a great challenge. While even people over 65 years are at a higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19, the southern state treated a 93-year-old man and his 88-year-old wife for the disease. Now it has come with a plan, ‘reverse isolation,’ to prevent the spread of the infection to the elderly and people with other ailments by segregating them from the infected.
According to The Hindustan Times, the state is taking this initiative to isolate the elderly and keep track of the mortality rate among them, if a community spread starts. An official in the health ministry told HT that Kerala needed a multi-pronged strategy to fight the pandemic. Called reserve quarantine, the method also helps doctors to monitor the health indicators of the people vulnerable to the disease.
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The task to isolate these people from the already isolated group will be given to workers of respective local bodies. The workers will take care of medicine, food and other essential needs of these people. Already, Asha workers have begun to identify the vulnerable group in the COVID-19 hotspots. The people will be provided with a separate place in their house and the interactions with the other members of the family will be limited, Dr Jayaprakash Muliyil, an epidemiologist, told HT.
According to the 2011 census, more than 2 per cent of Kerala’s population comprises people about 80 years and around 12.2 per cent comprises of people between 60 and 80 years. The national average of people about 60 years is 8.5 per cent of the country’s total population. Last week, Kerala began flattening the curve with just 60 new cases reported between April 6 and 12, in contrast to 1,071 new cases in Maharashtra and 566 in Delhi.
As of 5 pm on April 23, Kerala had 438 confirmed cases, out of which 324 were cured or discharged. The state has so far witnessed three deaths.