Police efforts to enforce lockdown in Kerala's Kasaragod bears fruit

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan deputed top cop Vijay Sakhare to rrn district of Kasaragod as a special officer on March 23, when it was emerging as India's biggest COVID-19 hotspot. Three weeks down line, district is slowly turning into a safe haven for people, paving way for a discussion on "Kasaragod Initiative of Kerala Police"-- a model that could be emulated in or heavily-hit areas in country.

On March 31, number of COVID-19 cases in Kasargod h touched 106. y became 164 on April 6 and w in last six days only 14 cases have been reported, a significant drop in number of cases in district.

"It was possible only because of our containment strategy. Basically our strategy was based on three locks-- Lock 1, Lock 2, and Lock 3 to ensure that people do t mix up and infection does t spre,"Sakhare, who is commissioner of Kochi city police told PTI.

Taking charge as special officer, Inspector General rank officer enforced three locks in district in line with lockdown measures taken by central and state governments to arrest spre of dely virus re. locks were put as part of a three-pronged strategy to completely isolate persons who were primary and secondary contacts of COVID-19 positive persons came from abro, particularly Gulf countries, Sakhare said.

"Lock 1 was implemented doing tritional policing methods like ro block and mobile patrolling and all. Through this measure we were able to control people coming out of ir homes", he said.

second strategy was implementation of Lock 2, creating a Geographical Infromation System, mapping all positive cases, all home quarantined persons, all expatriates who came from foreign countries and primary and secondary contacts of positive persons.

"Very interesting picture emerged. We saw that all positive cases are concentrated only in seven areas of district spre over five police stations. We isolated those areas by cordoning m off. All ros leing to areas were blocked and body was allowed to go in or come out," IPS officer said.

police n put third lock, declaring seven areas as Covid Containment Zones to isolate worst-affected places from rest of district. Based on inputs that COVID-19 positive persons who came from abro h stayed at ir homes, met ir friends and mingled with family members, police included all of m in list of primary contacts and secondary contacts.

"After identifying se contacts, we put m under Third Lock. y were locked in isolation using techlogy as well as tritional policing methods," Sakhare said.

"As part of third lock, we put police guards in front of ir homes. We created a beat patrol policing covering 10 to 12 houses of affected persons. Visiting ir homes, police personnel educated people on importance of staying ir homes", he said.

Besides, all houses, where primary and secondary contacts resided were brought under drone surveillance, Sakhare said. He said COVID-19 safety apps were also installed in phones of primary and secondary contacts.

"If somebody tries to leave his home, n we get an alert. In that case, we go and shift such people to government quarantine facilities besides initiating legal actions against m. Three days after implementing third lock, we have moved 107 people into government quarantines because ir actions were dangerous to society. app was installed in phones of over 10,700 home quarantined people," officer said.

district police launched home delivery service in COVID containment zones to deliver essential items at doorsteps of people to ensure that y remained indoor. door delivery programme was later extended to all parts of district. police also launched a 'Kasargod Suraksha App' to provide telemedicine to those isolated and wanted to consult with doctors for ir various ailments.

top police official said after April 14 upto April 21st "we expect 12 to 14 cases only" in district. It will furr come down to single digit by month end and "four weeks from w I expect case will be zero. report of COVID cases," he ded. Out of 166 who were infected in district, 73 got cured. fresh cases were reported on Monday.