Thiruvananthapuram: The Pinarayi Vijayan-led government in Kerala may impose lockdown in the state as the COVID-19 test positivity rate (TPR) has climbed to 17.73 percent following the easing of the restrictions over the last couple of weeks. On the occasion of Onam, a large number of people were seen flouting social distancing norms across the state, which has already been reporting the highest number of fresh cases for the last few days.
The three-day Onam festivities began on Friday and a peep into the Covid scenario during Onam 2020 showed that this day then had 2,543 positive cases and 2,097 recoveries, while there were 23,111 active cases. Compared to then, the scene this Onam is pretty bad and for several days, Kerala has reported over 50 per cent of the daily new Covid positive cases in the country.
As per the reports, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is expected to hold a review meeting on the present scenario and might take a tough decision regarding the imposition of restrictions again.
However, the experts have suggested that instead of imposing lockdown, a strategy of keeping shops open for more hours should be tried to avoid crowding at shops, reported Deccan Herald.
Earlier this month, the Kerala government had announced an easing of the lockdown curbs. However, Health Minister Veena George, had clearly stated that it would be a triple lockdown for shops located in an area, where over 10 of the 1000 people of the population are infected in a week.
“In other places, shops will be allowed to operate six days in a week considering the current general situation in the state and the progress of the vaccination,” she had said, adding that it can function from 7 am till 9 pm. Shops would remain open and curbs would be eased on August 15 and 22 though the days fall on Sunday, considering the Independence Day and the Onam festival rush respectively, she had told reporters.
Meanwhile, Kerala reported 10,402 COVID-19 positive cases and 66 related deaths on Sunday, taking the total number of those affected in the state by the viral infection to 38,14,305. Among the districts, Malappuram reported the highest number of cases today at 1,577, followed by Kozhikode with 1,376 and Palakkad 1,133.
The Minister said out of those found infected today, 104 reached the state from outside, 9,674 contracted the disease from their contacts. “The sources of infection of 572 are yet to be traced. 52 health workers are also among the infected,” the minister noted.
Meanwhile, 25,586 people recuperated from the disease in the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries in the state to 36,31,066. Currently, there are 1,63,212 people under treatment in the state.