Testing, treatment and quarantine will be strengthened inside the “clusters”, said KK Shailaja (File)
Thiruvananthapuram:
As coronavirus cases continue to increase in Kerala, the state government has decided to implement a “cluster care” method to mitigate the spread of the deadly virus, the health minister of the state, KK Shailaja.
The minister said that testing, treatment and quarantine will be stepped up inside “clusters” to stop the spread of the virus beyond a particular area.
“Those in the clusters must strictly follow the health protocol, including wearing masks, social isolation, hand washing, use of disinfectants, etc. We must keep in mind that the clusters are trained just before community transmission, “said Shailaja in a statement. .
A cluster is formed when there is an “unexpected increase in COVID-19 cases” in a particular area or region.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Friday that the spread of the community had occurred in Poonthura and Pulluvila in Thiruvananthapuram and the surrounding area had seen a rapid increase in the number of contact cases.
The Minister of Health said there are 87 clusters in the state of which 70 are active clusters and 17 are contained clusters.
“Two of these clusters have reported community transmission and people must cooperate with the health department to get these regions out of the cluster classification,” she said.
Tracking of cluster contacts has started due to the fact that there is at least one case whose source is unknown and more than two unbound cases in an area.
“It can be a market, a hospital, a coastal area, an institution, a service, a panchayat or a tribal area. The disease can be reported en masse among people who work or live in this particular area, “she said.
She also said that the state government and the health department were trying to “break the chain” of transmission from one cluster to another by “completely locking the clusters”.
“We need to pay more attention to the coastal areas. Inside the clusters, the local transmission is more than 50%, but outside the clusters, it is less than 10%. We have to prevent the formation of clusters and the community spread of infection, “said Ms. Shailaja.
The health department said that when a cluster is formed, a rapid response team will be put in place that will be responsible for tracing contacts and performing tests based on primary and secondary contacts.
A region will only be declassified as a cluster if it is confirmed that there are no new cases within 7 days of the detection of the last positive case in this area.
Kerala reported 593 COVID-19 fees on Saturday, including 364 contact cases.
