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'No lockdown on Saturdays but triple lockdown if...': Kerala tweaks Covid rules as infections shoot up
Kerala lockdown: Sunday lockdown will continue, but shops will be allowed to remain open on August 15 and August 22 because of Independence Day and Onam. There will be a complete lockdown in Kerala on August 8.
A day after Kerala reported 23,676 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, the highest single-day spike since May 29, the state government on Wednesday tweaked the restrictions and allowed shops to open on all six days a week, relaxing the restrictions. However, there will be a triple lockdown imposed in areas where there are more than 10 Covid-19 cases detected among 1,000 people in a week. In such areas, only shops dealing with essential items be allowed to be open.
What are the new Covid-19 rules?
In places where the number of weekly infections is below 10 in 1,000 population, all shops will be allowed to operate six days a week. The shops can function from 7am till 9pm.
There will be no lockdown on Saturdays.
Sunday lockdown will continue, but shops will be allowed to remain open on August 15 and August 22 because of Independence Day and Onam. But there will be a complete lockdown on August 8.
Public functions are allowed in open areas with not more than 40 people. 20 people are allowed in weddings and funerals.
Educational institutions will remain closed and hotels can open for home delivery.
What is a triple lockdown?
Triple lockdown is Kerala's tried and tested strategy to contain Covid-19 infections. This strategy involves three locks at three stages. The first lock is at the designated area where a sudden spurt of cases is being noticed. The second lock is generally put at the cluster level. And the third lock is at the house of the infected individuals.
Relaxation plus restriction
The government has decided that triple lockdown will only be imposed in areas where there will be more than 10 cases in 1,000 people in a week. The rest of the areas can come back to normalcy as the present spike in the state is district-specific.
Centre versus Kerala
To probe into the sudden increase in cases, the Centre sent a six-member team to Kerala, which highlighted several loopholes in Kerala's approach, like the state is heavily dependent on rapid antigen tests and not the gold standard of Covid-19 testing, RT-PCR. The Central team also pointed out that the state is not maintaining central rules of containment.
Health minister Veena George on Wednesday said in the assembly the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic was decreasing in the state as hospital occupancy and ICU occupancy are going down.
