PremiumIn Kerala, shops in malls will reopen from today, August 11, despite the surge in coronavirus cases in the state.
According to the Kerala government's order, officials deployed at the entry points in the mall will have to ensure that people entering the mall are following Covid-19 protocols--including the wearing of masks, maintenance of social distancing among others.
Currently, as per the Kerala government's latest guidelines all shops, banks, factories, tourist places can function six days a week from Monday to Saturday.
Shop timings will be from 7 am to 9 pm.
But on Sunday, the state government has decided to impose a lockdown.
Further, the Kerala government has strictly prohibited mass gathering during Onam, Muharram, Janmashtami, Ganesh Chathurthi, and Durga Pooja to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The Kerala government has decided that "no public observation of festivals or mass gatherings will be permitted during the above-mentioned festivals in the State", the order said. Besides that from August 12 onwards, special intensified stringent lockdown restrictions will be enforced in the Panchayats or urban wards where the infection spread is critical and the Weekly Infection PopulationRatio (WIPR) is above 8. It further said that for Sabarimala pilgrimage and 'darshan' from August 15, a maximum of 15,000 devotees per day would be permitted and virtual queue registration will continue for crowd management.
Kerala Covid caseload has surged to 35,86,693 as the state registered 21,119 new cases on Tuesday.
The number of people who succumbed to the virus rose to 18,004 with 152 more deaths.
According to a six-member central team that visited eight districts of Kerala has said from August 1 to August 20, the state may witness around 4.6 lakh COVID-19 cases.
Kerala accounted for more than half of the COVID-19 cases recorded in the country in the last seven days, the central government said.
According to the report submitted by the team, the COVID-19 positivity rate was found to be more than 10% in all eight districts and at some places, it was found to be increasing. Over 80% of the cases were of the Delta variant of the virus.
"Contact-tracing was found to be abysmally low -- 1:1.2 to 1:1.7 -- and the Rt value, which was the lowest (0.8) on June 1, is continuously rising with a current Rt value of 1.2," the team pointed.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!!