Stephan Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network – Kasargod (MS/EP)
Kasargod, Apr 6: “Permission to transport non-infected coronavirus (Covid-19) patients from Kerala to Karnataka has been obtained,” said Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday, April 6. “The entry to Mangaluru is allowed if they travel holding medical certificates. They should specify to which hospital they intend to go. They will be allowed to travel after a team of doctors at Talapady border examine them,” he said.
Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus infected people in Kasargod has crossed 150. The virus was confirmed on nine more people on Monday. Throat swab samples of a total number of 1,769 has been sent for testing. Samples of 102 people were sent on Monday. The results of 1,084 people have been received. Infection among 151 people them is confirmed. Results of 685 samples is awaited.
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan
As many as 10,844 people are under observation in the district. A total of 10,623 among them are at homes and 221 are in hospitals. Sixteen among them are newly shifted to isolation ward. Twenty-seven people have been discharged from the hospitals.
The Kerala government had earlier questioned the action of Karnataka government of closing the borders with the state in the Supreme Court (SC). It had appealed to the SC to allow them to use road connectivity.
In its appeal, Kerala government said, "Karnataka has closed the borders during the critical time of coronavirus infection. It has closed all the road access to Kerala. Due to this already eight people have lost lives." It had appealed to the SC to instruct the union government to take out an order asking government of Karnataka to open its borders with Kerala.
Earlier, the Kerala High court had ordered the Karnataka government to withdraw its order of closing the borders with Kerala. However, Karnataka had not changed its stance. The Karnataka government also has approached the Supreme Court questioning the verdict passed by Kerala high court. Karnataka’s appeal will be heard by Supreme Court on Tuesday, April 7.
Karnataka has closed all the 23 road accessed by Kerala as soon as the union government declared lockdown. All vehicle movement including emergency vehicles like ambulance and other goods vehicles carrying essentials is totally prohibited.
Karnataka government has taken this action to prevent the coronavirus infected people of Kasargod district of Kerala, which has reported highest number of infections, not to enter the state and spread the same in Karnataka also. In addition, the government of Karnataka is already fighting against the increasing number of infected people in its own state. So it does not want to take risk of opening the borders with Kerala as per sources.