Kerala has decided against lifting the weekend lockdown and other restrictions even as relaxations allowed in view of Bakrid ended on Tuesday. Adverse remarks from the Supreme Court in the morning weighed in as a high-level meeting of officials decided to hold its horses for the time being.
This is even as the Covid test positivity rate (TPR) rose sharply to 11.91 per cent from Monday’s 11.08 per cent after it broke through a sustained 10 per cent barrier only the previous day. The State reported 16,848 new cases on Tuesday out of 1,41,431 samples tested. Active cases counted in at 1,26,398.
Three lakh tests planned
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said there is no withdrawing the lockdown, which will apply as per the ongoing local self-government-wise segmentation, based on prevailing TPR of 15 per cent+ (D); between 10 and 15 per cent (C); between and 5 and 10 per cent (B); and below five per cent (A).
The testing will be ramped up to three lakh on Friday as part of the ongoing programme to do maximum possible numbers at random. The Chief Minister singled out the districts of Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kasaragod as reporting the latest resurgence in transmission and elevated TPR levels.
Vijayan also said that in districts along the inter-State border known for plantations employing labourers from outside the State, alternative arrangements need to be ensured and local accommodation provided to prevent them commuting on a daily basis and crossing the border.
Earlier, on Tuesday, the Supreme Court had termed lockdown relaxations as ‘wholly uncalled for’ and warned that it will take action if the easing of curbs leads to further spread of the virus. The government was pulled up or citing traders’ pressure and said this represented a ‘sorry state of affairs.’
The three-day relaxations did not apply where the Covid test positivity rate was above 15 per cent, and where a triple lockdown was in effect. In those local self-government jurisdictions where the TPR was variously lower across A, B and C categories, shops selling essential goods could open for business.
The government was also under pressure to act by traders represented by the Kerala Vyapara Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi (KVVES), the strongest among all, which had dared to take it on by openly flouting the lockdown that had caused huge economic losses to them.
‘Unscientific lockdown’
The KVVES has been arguing with ‘some logic and even more empathy’ that the weekend lockdowns have proved ‘unscientific’ in the manner in which they were being implemented, leading to avoidable crowding during the rest of the weekdays. They hardly have had any salutary effect on the TPR.
It is widely believed that the KVVES may have been aiming to kill more than one bird ahead of impending Onam festival and associated shopping season.