COVID-19: Joy Alukkas Village to be converted as isolation ward

PTI, Mar 30, 2020, 4:54 PM IST

Kasaragod: The Joy Alukkas Foundation, the CSR arm of Joy Alukkas Group,has given its housing complex at nearby Enmakaje panchayat in Kasaragod, which has the highest number of COVID-19 patients in Kerala, to the authorites to be converted into isolation wards to help house them.

The recently completed colony, comprising 36 houses, has been built for rehabilitating Endosulfan victims and the foundation has handed them over to the panchayat on their request for converting it into Covid-19 isolation wards.

Endosulfan, a pesticide, had been sprayed on cashew plantations of Kasaragod several years ago, contaminating soil and water and causing health hazards to people in the district.

“There is no power supply and hence we have requested the Kerala State Electricity Board authorities to get it done and hope power supply to be given either by today or tomorrow.

We have also requested voluntary organisations to donate beds and other infrasructure to facilitate transformation of the houses into isolation wards, Panchayat president Y Sarada said.

Apart form these houses, a nursery, childrens park and a healthcare facility are also on the cards in the village, being completed on a five-acre land gifted by the State Government as part of its initiative to rehabilitate Endosulfan victims of the district.

Given the fact that close to half of the total COVID-19 patients in the state are in the district, more isolation facilities would be required in the coming days.

Eighty out of the total of 181 confirmed and active cornoavirus cases in Kerala are in Kasaragod.