Kerala , Kasargod model, Sprinklr and …fight against CORONA is going on
New Delhi. Covid-19 has its own impact on politics, reality and fight on the turf. Kerala is being praised for its Kasargod model for effective COVID-19 fight. On the other hand use of “Sprinklr” app to track the citizens is being questioned. Third is a report which claims that after 21-day lockdown there has been a 80% job loss and the gross state domestic product is down 82% in Kerala.
Central Health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said proper clinical management and coronavirus cluster containment strategy makes Kasargod model inspiring. According tom Hindustan Times,he pointed out that a large percentage of the district’s population lives abroad, which resulted in two waves of infections, first in Feb from a China-returned student and the second in mid-March after the return of individuals from the middle-east. The district is geographically distant from major cities and is farthest from the state capital and to add further to its woes, it was difficult to track expatriates that landed in large numbers at different airports before heading home.
Kerala’s strategy to appoint a special state officer in Kasaragod , use of geospatial tracking through drones of people put in home quarantine, a core team of ‘Incident Commanders’ to attend to all Covid-19 related emergencies are the strong point of this model. Identification of containment cluster zones through red colour coding was done. Under ‘Care for Kasaragod’ initiative the constitution of ‘Jana Jagratha Samithis’ at ward level for free food distribution to the poor and migrant workers was also effective.
But, Kerala model has some critics too. Manorama Online reported, the opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala had alleged that the government had entered into the data-handling contract with Sprinklr without due procedures, thereby risking the privacy of the people under quarantine. Kerala government has denied the charges. Sprinklr is owned by an American company is Kerala government’s IT department is using this mobile application which allows health workers to record details of the citizens under surveillance for symptoms of the novel coronavirus.
On Sunday19 April, quite in keeping with the low single digit figures in the previous days, only two have tested positive; one each in Kannur and Kasaragod.. And both are foreign returnees, one from Abu Dhabi and the other from Dubai., reported Manorama Online.