Kerala Lockdown News Today: The full lockdown imposed by the Kerala government will come into effect in the state on Sunday. Notably, the total lockdown will be imposed on Sundays till January 30 to curb the spread of Covid-19 infections in the state. During this time, the state government said that only essential services will be allowed and there will be restrictions on movement of people.
The announcement came a day after the state imposed fresh restrictions as a preventive measure to contain the Covid cases. A high-level COVID review meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, decided to allow working women with children below the age of two, cancer patients and seriously ill persons to work through the work from home system.
The state government also directed institutions including businesses, malls, beaches, and other tourist places like theme parks, to ensure no gatherings take place and operate strictly adhering to COVID-19 protocols.
The state government said that the restrictions will be imposed at district level on the basis of the number of people admitted to hospitals.
Full list of guidelines for Sunday lockdown:
- The state government authorised the Disaster Management Authority to divide the districts into three groups, A, B and C.
- In the districts fall under A category, all social, cultural, religious, political and public events and weddings and funerals can be attended by up to 50 people.
- No such gatherings will be allowed in the B and C category districts.
- Movie theaters, swimming pools and gyms are not allowed to function in C category districts.
- All classes except undergraduate and postgraduate level final year classes besides 10 and 12 classes- are allowed online only in C category districts.
- However, residential educational institutions are allowed to operate on a bio-bubble model.
- The religious functions can be held online.
- Thiruvananthapuram, Wayanad, Palakkad, Idukki and Pathanamthitta districts are likely to impose major restrictions including a ban on public meetings.
- Only essential services will be allowed to operate on January 23 and January 30.
- Mothers with children below two years of age, cancer patients, patients inflicted with severe diseases will be allowed to operate in a work-from-home manner.
Corona cases: Kerala continued to record steep rise in COVID-19 cases with 45,136 new positive cases being reported on Saturday, taking the tally to 55,74,702. Kerala had on Friday logged 41,668 fresh coronavirus cases, a day after registering 46,387 cases on Thursday, the highest single day spike since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.
Among today’s fatalities, 70 were recorded over the last few days while 62 were designated as COVID-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court.
Among the districts, Ernakulam reported the highest number of new infections on Saturday–8,143, followed by Thiruvananthapuram with 7,430 and Thrissur 5,120. There are 3,85,516 persons under observation of which 8,430 are in isolation wards of various hospitals.
