Kochi: A woman IAS officer hailing from Kerala is behind implementing effective steps to restrict the spread of coronavirus and make Kodagu district in Karnataka free of COVID-19 epidemic.

Annies Kanmani Joy, the deputy commissioner of Kodagu hails Piravam in Kottayam district. Her expertise as a nurse came handy while chalking ways and means to combat the contagious virus. Annies, who holds the office of a district collector, completed her nursing studies from Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram.

The COVID-19 disease was first detected in a 35-year-old man in the district on March 19. No time was lost in tracing the contacts of the patient and everyone was put in quarantine. Acting swiftly, the authorities pulled all the stops to curb the spread of virus. Though the number of positive cases is spiralling in other parts of Karnataka, no such case was reported in the past four weeks in the district.

Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the Union Health Ministry, had praised the efforts of the Kodagu district administration to arrest the spread of coronavirus.

The fight against the virus was akin to a battle in warzone, said Annies. "We had to put in place many precautionary measures as the district shared borders with districts in Kerala that had logged many positive cases. People are co-operative and following the instructions given by the district administration and police," she added.

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