When a young woman from Pathanamthitta wrote to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan about the attack on her house by some miscreants – who belonged to the CPI(M) – the party immediately suspended them, and they were booked by the police. The reason for the attack: the woman had completed home quarantine for COVID-19, but some people still viewed her and her family with suspicion.
To ensure that this doesn’t happen again, the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has decided to give certificates of appreciation to all those who have completed their quarantine. Since Wednesday, the Corporation has issued certificates to around 100 people.
“The certificate has been issued as a document for the people who have completed quarantine to step out. Because people have different natures right? They shouldn’t view the people who have finished quarantine with contempt or suspicion. After all, they have obeyed the direction to be in quarantine well,” Thiruvananthapuram Mayor K Sreekumar told TNM.
The Corporation has developed a mobile app for the surveillance of the people who are on quarantine. The app has been run by trained volunteers. It’s the volunteers who have been distributing the certificates as well.
The move is the Corporation’s own initiative without any direction for the same by the government. “It’s actually a thanks giving for the people who diligently followed the advisories,” the Mayor added. The Mayor himself handed over the first certificate to a young woman in the city.
The Corporation has also begun removing the stickers pasted on the houses of those who were on quarantine. Former Mayor VK Prasanth, who is currently an MLA, along with District Collector K Gopalakrishnan commenced the move by removing stickers.
The district has five COVID-19 patients as on Thursday, April 9.
As many as 5,802 people are on surveillance in the district; 5,704 people are under home quarantine and 98 are in hospitals.
Kerala has reported 12 new cases on Thursday taking the total number of cases into 357. 258 are under treatment while 97 have recovered.