Manipal’s Dr Ballal defends Karnataka’s institutional quarantine mandate for visitors from Kerala

State’s Covid-19 expert committee member Dr Sudarshan Ballal on Tuesday defended Karnataka’s tough measures on visitors from Kerala, saying the infection numbers there pose a threat of spreading to other states.

“If your neighbour’s house is on fire, it can spread to us too,” he told ET, saying institutional quarantine is a common tool used in foreign countries to prevent the spread of a disease.

Kerala on Tuesday reported 19622 new cases, with an average positivity rate of 18% for the past seven days, while Karnataka recorded 1217 cases with a positivity rate of 0.94%.


“We are on better ground now, but we cannot let our guard down. Karnataka has taken appropriate steps and the next one or two months are critical for us to see how things will go,” said Dr Ballal, who is also the chairman of Manipal Hospitals.

“We have to be concerned that there may be a third wave because there are so many cases in just one state. We have to mitigate and prevent the consequences of the second wave,” he said.

THIRD WAVE: The veteran nephrologist, however, sounded optimistic about a potential third wave, saying 70% of the country’s population has already been exposed to the virus. “The fact that a large number of people have already been exposed and a fair number vaccinated, we will have some protection from a third wave,” he said.



“We have to also look at genomic analysis of the type of viral wave we are seeing. What we saw in the second wave was disastrous because of the delta mutation of that original virus which spread like a wildfire. So we have to be on the lookout to see if there is any further mutation that can be infectious or that will increase the severity of the disease,” Dr Ballal said.



The delta variant, interestingly, has not changed so far, and we are still exposed to the same virus as during the second wave, he said. “Unless this virus changes to a more deadly form, we will have relative safety to this virus.”

Health authorities in states, Dr Ballal said, have to speed up vaccination so that large populations are covered in a short span of time. The only population that is not vaccinated are children. But sero surveys have shown a number of children have already been exposed, and they have had milder symptoms, just like a mild flu. Very few required hospitalisation or ICU, and the mortality was extremely small, he added.