Kerala to end weekend curbs with triple lockdown warning, shops can open till 9pm

Mangalore Today News Network / News18

Thiruvanantapuram, Aug 04, 2021: Kerala on Wednesday decided to lift weekend lockdown, a day after its daily Covid tally surged higher than any state had recorded in the last two months. Health minister Veena George said in Assembly that there was a general recommendation to the state that there should be an additional parameter to the TPR (test positivity rate) classification.

 

“We need to categories areas based on cases per 1,000 of the population," she added. A day earlier, a high-level meeting convened by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided to amend the Covid containment plan in the state after the TPR-based lockdown of civic bodies failed to yield the desired result.

Discussing reports filed by the expert panel on Covid management, the participants of the meeting decided to allow shops and private establishments to function with reasonable restrictions on six days a week till 9pm.

• Shops can open six days a week. The timings can be 7 am to 9 pm.

• In an area in a week, if more than 10 people per thousand population test positive, there will be triple lockdown.

• There will not be any lockdown on August 15 and August 22 (Sunday), anticipating Onam rushes and Independence Day.

• Only 20 people will be allowed for marriage and funeral.

Kerala on Tuesday reported 23,676 fresh Covid cases pushing the total infection count to 34.49 lakh, with the number of people succumbing to the virus touching 17,103 after 148 additional deaths.

Some of the worst affected districts in the state are Malappuram with 4276 infections, Thrissur 2908, Ernakulam 2702, Kozhikode 2416, Palakkad 2223, Kollam 1836, Alappuzha 1261, Kottayam 1241, Kannur 1180 and Trivandrum 1133.

Of the new cases, 114 are health workers, 105 had come from outside the state and 22,530 were infected through contact with the source of contact being not clear in 927 cases, the release said. There are currently 4,66,154 people under surveillance in various districts of the state.

Of these, 4,37,296 are in home or institutional quarantine and 28,858 in hospitals. There are 678 areas in the state with a TPR of above 10 per cent, a health ministry statement said.