Kerala government has decided to do away with institutional quarantine for Malayalis returning from other states. Instead, it has been decided that all of them, except those who test positive during the entry screening, should undergo compulsory home quarantine that would be strictly monitored.
The new home quarantine policy has been adopted in the wake of the new realisation that institutional quarantine facilities are highly limited and could trigger community spread. It was the government's expert committee on health that had put forward the argument for home quarantine.
However, those with houses that do not conform to the government's protocol on home quarantine will be asked to take institutional quarantine, either in paid hotels or in facilities created by the government. As per protocol, the house should have a separate bath-attached room for the returnee.
Whether a house is fit for home quarantine will be decided by a team of health, local self-government and home department officials. It is the same team that will keep a close watch on people in home quarantine. Those violating home quarantine norms will also be shifted to institutional quarantine.
Those in home quarantine should have no contact whatsoever with the elderly in the house and also anyone with serious ailments.
The government has also decided to limit COVID-detection RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription - Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests to only those with COVID-like symptoms. Those testing positive will be shifted to COVID Care Centres while others will be asked to undergo strict quarantine at home.
Testing norms have been further relaxed. The initial guidelines said samples of positive cases were to be subjected to follow up PCR tests every alternate day after the first positive result. The revised one says it needs to be done only seven days after the first positive result.
The initial set of guidelines had also spoken of a PCR test on all coming in after seven days of arrival. This has been removed.
