Kochi, Apr 21 () Amid rise in novel coronavirus casesin Kannur, the Kerala government has chosen the state police's"triple lock containment" strategy to check the spread of theinfection in the northern district, a top police officer saidon Tuesday.
The strategy had helped in arresting the spread of thedeadly virus in neighbouring Kasaragod, which was one of thefirst COVID-19 hotspots in the country.
The decision to replicate it in Kannur was taken afterthe district emerged as a new hotspot, reporting most numberof COVID-19 cases in the state, overtaking Kasaragod district,Inspector General of Police Vijay Sakhare said.
The triple lock, which involves a combination oftechnology and human surveillance and restricting movement ofpeople in three stages, has come into force in Kannurdistrict, he told .
While Lock-I envisages broader restriction of movement ofall people residing in the district,Lock-II is for people living in distinct geographical areaswith positive cases and the third stage is targeted effort tokeep primary and secondary contacts of COVID-19 patient intheir homes. All entries and exits in the containment zones are blockedby deploying police personnel.
According to the latest data released by the government,Kannur has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the stateat over 60 with ten new cases while Kasaragod, which accountedfor most cases in the state once, now has only 25 people undertreatment for the virus.
The triple lock strategy was conceptualised andimplemented under the leadership of Sakhare, who was deputedto Kasargod as a special officer by Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan last month after the situation there turned alarming.
The Chief Minister in his press conference on Mondaypraised the Kasaragod model, saying strict enforcement oflockdown by police and better medical care helped the districtto come out of the grip of the virus.
Sakhare said the interventions in the three locks COVIDcontainment strategy are a combination of professionalpolicing techniques and innovative use of technology.
"It is possible to apply the strategy to any otherlocation or situation as professional policing practices-conducting surveillance, enquiries, investigations andenforcement of order- and technology do not change with placeand people," he said.
The officer said this measure alone was applied to thepandemic situation that existed in Kasaragod on March 25.
"As a result of these interventions, the reporting of newpositive cases dropped sharply," Sakhare, who is the PoliceCommissioner of Kochi, said.
According to him, the impact of containment strategy canbe gauged from the fact that in a period of 11 days afterApril 7, only 12 cases were reported as against 75 cases inthe preceding 11 days, a significant reduction of 84 per cent. "Since last one week-from April 12 to April 18 only onepositive case was reported. The impact of triple lockcontainment strategy of police started appearing in theresults, which is in line with two weeks of incubation periodfor the virus," he said.
The results have demonstrated that the strategy wasextremely successful in containing the spread of virus, theofficer said.
"The success of strategy can be gauged from the fact thatit has brought weekly reporting of cases from 64 to barely 2with in the span of three weeks - a reduction of 97 per cent,"he added. TGBVS VS
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