PremiumIn the wake of incessant rise in Covid-19 cases, the Kerala government has announced triple lockdown in four districts of the state from Sunday midnight till May 23.
The state administration will seal the borders of Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Thrissur, and Malappuram districts in a bid to mitigate the transmission of coronavirus, while the current lockdown will continue in the other 10 districts of the state.
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Premium Premium On Sunday, Malappuram reported the highest coronavirus cases (4,424), followed by Ernakulam (3,154), Thrissur (3,056), and Thiruvananthapuram (2,818)
According to the guidelines issued by the Thiruvananthapuram district administration, shops dealing with food, groceries, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat and fish, animal fodder, poultry and cattle feed, bakeries will be open on alternate days starting from Monday onwards.
Newspaper and milk distribution services will be prohibited after 8 am.
Fair price shops (Ration/PDS/Maveli /Supplyco shops) and milk booths will be allowed to function every day till 5 pm.
Restaurants and hotels will be allowed to function from 7 am-7.30 pm with home delivery services only. No dine-in and take-away/parcels shall be allowed in any restaurants or hotels.
Banks, insurance, and financial services will function with minimal staff on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 am to 1 pm. Cooperative Banks will remain open only on Monday and Thursday from 10 am to 1 pm.
Medical shops, petrol pumps, ATMs, shops selling life-saving equipment, hospitals, and other clinical establishments will function all days
Besides, the district authorities have advised the public to buy vegetables from shops near their houses and not to travel long distances for the purchase of provisions and vegetables.
The public will be prevented from travelling long distances for the purchase of essential commodities, the authorities said.
Police in Ernakulam districts have said all district borders will be sealed, besides absolutely closing all the containment zones in the district.
The officials said all houses with positive and primary contact family members will be sealed and no person from containment zones will be allowed to step out even if he or she belongs to the exempted category of work.
"No outside person will be allowed into containment zones even if it is exempted category work", as per the guidelines.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said drones and Geo-Fencing technology will be used and strict restrictions would be clamped in all four districts.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 cases in Kerala have started showing a downward trend with the state reporting 29,704 fresh cases on Sunday.
The test positivity rate was 25.61% on Sunday. This is the lowest since May 12 when the state had recorded 43,529 new Covid-19 cases. Currently, 4,40,652 people are under treatment in the state.
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