Kerala tightens Covid restrictions

Kochi: The next two days will see Kerala going under total lockdown as the Covid-19 continued unabated and claimed more lives on Friday. The State administration has asked the police not to allow people to come out of their houses unless it is an emergency situation.

Since the State is not showing any drop in the number of daily cases of new patients and the death rate remains on the higher side, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan resumed his media briefing after a gap of one week on Friday.

According to Vijayan, 14,233 new people were diagnosed with the coronavirus and 173 people fell victim to the disease.

The Test Positivity Rate at the end of the day was 13.29 and there were 1.34 lakh persons under treatment across the State. Vijayan said the Government has made it mandatory that people staying indoors too wear face masks. Even couples and husband and wives have been told, though indirectly, not to cross the Lakshman Rekha without face



masks.

“People who stay inside the houses are advised to follow Covid-19 guidelines and maintain social distancing between each other,” said the Chief Minister with a fatherly touch. He said the Government was planning to extend the interval between the second and third waves so as to bring down the fatality rate.

Vijayan said that the lock down has helped the State to control the transmission of the pandemic. “Though the number of cases have not shown signs of coming down and the death rate remains high, Kerala is well ahead of other States. We have become a role model for  other countries and they are following the Kerala style in regulating the pandemic,” he said.

The Chief Minister claimed that 25 per cent of the population in the State has been vaccinated despite the indifferent attitude of the Centre. Only those people who have taken the two doses of the vaccine would be allowed to travel across the State, he said.