Crowding: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan warns of action against those violating norms

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has warned that relaxing lockdown restrictions does not mean that public places are free from the pandemic. He said that violating the instructions would invite stern action.
The CM said that the public has shown less caution on the second day of relaxing the lockdown restrictions as crowding was witnessed in many places.
The state will have strict lockdown on Saturday and Sunday.
“There have been instances when the public ignored the instructions of the police, or even resorted to verbal fights with officials. The police have been asked to take strict action in such cases,” the Chief Ministers said. He said that the instructions have to be followed even in places that were categorized as A or B, which are regions where the test positivity rate is less than eight percent and under 20% respectively.
He said that in many places, those who were supposed to be in quarantine had also stepped out. Till now, the police have been advising them and taking them back to their homes. But as such actions will once again increase the pandemic spread, the prosecution will be initiated against them under the Epidemic Diseases Act and the Disaster Management Act, the chief minister said.
The police registered cases against 3,883 persons in the state for violating Covid-19 regulations. As many as 1,514 persons were arrested and 2,019 vehicles were seized in the state in connection with violations. As many as 7,043 incidents of people not wearing masks were reported, and 36 cases were registered for violating quarantine. The highest number of cases were registered in Kollam rural (890 cases) followed by Kollam city (772), Thiruvananthapuram rural (648) and Thiruvananthapuram city (401).