Now, wards with WIPR above 8 to come under lockdown

Thiruvananthapuram: The state-level expert committee meeting on Covid-19, chaired by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday, further tightened the Covid-19 restrictions in the state.
According to the new norms adopted by the committee, local body wards having weekly infection population ratio (WIPR) above 8 would be clamped under lockdown. The state had been locking down wards with WIPR above 10 ever since it replaced the TPR based restrictions with WIPR. The review meeting resolved to increase by 50% the micro containment zones in districts with WIPR rate above 14. This comes in the wake of the test positivity rate in the state crossing 15% on Tuesday.
The committee has also tried to address the criticism against the vaccination-based restrictions it had earlier imposed on movement of non-vaccinated people. However, in this endeavour, the committee appears to have further complicated the already knotty affair. The earlier order wanted people to produce Covid-19 vaccination certificate or RT-PCR negative certificate for entry in shop, banks, markets and even public, private offices, factories, and the like. The revised norm says that non-vaccinated people can move out for purchase of food items, provided there is no vaccinated person in their house, or they are unable to receive vaccine due to drug allergy. It further directed traders to give priority to the non-vaccinated.
“Traders and LSGIs concerned shall give special attention to these categories of people and ensure home delivery of essential items,” the government order said.
At Sabarimala, 15,000 devotees would be given entry when the temple opens for monthly pooja on August 15. Those have received two shots of vaccine or who produce Covid-19 negative certificate within 72 hours at the time of darsan would be allowed entry once they register their names in the virtual queue.
The meeting also decided not to allow programmes that lead to crowding during Onam festival. Meeting of traders would be organized at local-body level and only licensed vendors would be allowed to engage in wayside sales.
The meeting has also decided to fix a standard fee for RT-PCR testing at airports. Paediatric facilities would also be improved in hospitals.
TPR soars to 15.91%
The state on Tuesday recorded 21,119 new Covid-19 cases and 152 deaths. With this, the total death toll has touched 18,004. The TPR rose to 15.91 % when 1,32,769 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. WIPR was higher than 10 in 266 wards.
Malappuram district continues to have the highest daily cases 3,603, followed by Ernakulam (2,539), Kozhikode (2,335), Thrissur (2,231), Palakkad (1,841), Kollam (1,637), Kottayam (1,245), Alappuzha (1,230), Kannur (1,091), Thiruvananthapuram (1,040), Wayanad (723), Pathanamthitta (686), Kasaragod (536) and Idukki (382).