Border district’s measures border on perfection: New book

The story of how Chamarajanagar has remained Karnataka’s lone coronavirus-free district is now available in the form of a book called ‘Yashogathe’.

This book, which has chronicled in detail all measures by the district administration, will be circulated across the state for emulation, according to Chamarajanagar district minister S Suresh Kumar.

The district, which shares borders with Tamil Nadu and Kerala, was a risk-prone region. According to Chamarajanagar DC M R Ravi, early screening, strict quarantine, stringent monitoring at checkposts along with involving people at the gram panchayat level helped them secure the region.

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District health officials were alert about Covid-19 as early as January 30, foreseeing risks across the interstate borders. The administration began screening travellers much before the pandemic spread. While other districts had begun home quarantine of residents with recent travel history, the district had already begun institutional quarantine. When it was found that 53 people from the district were employed in Jubilant Life Sciences in neighbouring Nanjangud, the district immediately quarantined all of them, Ravi said.

When the lockdown was partially lifted allowing restricted inter-district movement, Chamarajanagar officials did not immediately permit travel into the district. They received several applications for it, but only those with an emergency were permitted to travel, he said.

“We conducted two surveys to identify people with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) and Influenza-like Illness (ILI) cases. All of them tested negative for the virus, which indicated that there was no infection within the district. We immediately put in stringent measures at checkposts conducting thorough screening,” he explained.

The awareness at gram panchayat-level was a big help, Ravi said. “Even now, when I visit villages, there is 99% lockdown. People’s co-operation was a boon,” he said. The administration ensured that the quarantine facility did not seem prison-like, by being sensitive to people’s food preferences and by encouraging recreational activities there, he added.