Kannur, Kerala to Bengaluru

For HR professional Sajan Kumar (name changed), the road trip from Kerala’s Kannur to Bengaluru was an entirely different experience. En route to the Karnataka border, he and his family were stopped at multiple points every time they entered or left a town. “At the first stop our details (including photos) were collected and fed into their handheld devices. The details were verified at every stop,” he narrated.

But a surprise awaited them at the border. “As opposed to the rules we had read, there was no stamping, no temperature check and I’m not even sure they verified the number of people in the vehicle. They only checked the pass validity,” said Kumar.

No instruction was given on quarantine. “When I asked about it, I was told to go home. After that we weren’t stopped anywhere although there were a few police checkposts on the way.” The family had installed Arogya Setu, Quarantine Watch and Apthamithra apps, which were not verified at the border. “We assumed based on the app someone might track us and give us a call.”

The next day, Kumar recalled, “we started our quest of making our quarantine official. We called various numbers only to keep getting bounced off. We were being royally ignored. Finally we got through to a health official who asked us to pass on our address details. He told us we would get a visit from the health department soon. No one turned up.”

The family’s quarantine period had got over quite a while back. “Till date, no one has enquired. Looking at the Covid numbers of both the states, we can conclude that this pandemic can only be controlled through extensive contact tracing and a combined effort of the administration and health department starting from the grassroots level,” observed Kumar.