Defending the frequent changes in its policies on interstate travel, Karnataka Health Commissioner Pankaj Pandey said, it was a natural progression in decision making, based on data.
The state has made frequent changes on its standard operating procedures for interstate travel, initially banning entry from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Later it made institutional quarantine mandatory for travellers from these three states along withthose from Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. On May 31, the state said travellers from Maharashtra alone would be sent to institutional quarantine.
No flipflop
“The disease is very dynamic. We rely on multiple factors such as positivity rate, cases per million, tests per million etc. The decision making is dependent on all these factors,” Pandey told CNBC TV 18.
“I see it as a natural progression in decision making, not a flip flop. When we see a large number of people are turning positive after coming from a particular state, we have to adjust the intake capacity from that state. We have a certain amount of institutional quarantine capacity,” he added.
“We want to ensure that everyone who comes to the state registers so that we have a footprint. We want to ensure their health and of their families. This is for a greater public good. We have also put in place a system to involve the community, since vigilance and pressure from community is bigger to ensure people follow protocol,” Pandey added.
Privacy concerns
The state, in fact, has faced flak on previous occasions for making public the personal data of those who returned from foreign countries and were asked to quarantine themselves at home.
In March, Karnataka had put out details of people asked to be under home quarantine, and the list contained personal data about persons, including their addresses.
The commissioner, however, said it had a good impact by empowering RWAs and that greater public good takes priority during a pandemic.
“We released only addresses of these persons, because we wanted the community to know that there is a person in quarantine in their neighbourhood,” Pandey said.
“Several people were not being responsible. Community was roped in and they used this data. It helped residential associations take decisions,” he added.
“There was some apprehension about releasing addresses.But when there is information that can help stall the infection, greater public good takes priority," he said.
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