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Slugest as Oppn accuses Vijayan of protocol breach
Thiruvananthapuram: Amid the surging second wave of the coronavirus disease in Kerala, the opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday sought action against chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, claiming he flouted Covid-19 protocols and hid his illness so as to participate in a road show ahead of and voting during the assembly election on April 6, thereby endangering others
Thiruvananthapuram: Amid the surging second wave of the coronavirus disease in Kerala, the opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday sought action against chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, claiming he flouted Covid-19 protocols and hid his illness so as to participate in a road show ahead of and voting during the assembly election on April 6, thereby endangering others.
The chief minister tested positive for Covid-19 on April 8 and was admitted to the Government Medical College in Kozhikode the same day. He was discharged on Wednesday, six days after being hospitalised. When a controversy erupted over his early discharge, hospital authorities said he might have contracted the infection days before he got admitted. They added that when he was infected severely when admitted, but asymptomatic.
According to Covid-19 protocol, patients have to be in quarantine for at least a week after testing negative -- usually two weeks in quarantine is prescribed. Hospital authorities said the CM would isolate in his home for a week.
Union minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan said, “Hospital records show he was infected much earlier. On the polling day (April 6) his daughter Veena Vjayan, who was staying with him, came in a PPE suit to cast her vote. He should have gone on quarantine immediately. But on polling day, he came in a large group to the polling booth in Pinarayi village.”
Muraleedharan asked the police to register a case against Vijayan. “Two days before the polling, the CM carried out a mega road show in his constituency.”
“He gives big lessons to all on quarantine and post-quarantine norms. But it seems he is beyond these restrictions. He flouted all norms brazenly,” said Muraleedharan.
The Kerala Youth Congress said it will petition Governor Arif Mohamad Khan against the CM. “If I would have violated Covid norms like this and stood in the long queue to exercise my franchise, my house would have been destroyed the same day,” Kerala Youth Congress leader Veena Nair, who is a candidate from Vattiyoorkavu, posted on social media.
However, state health minister K K Shailaja said the whole controversy was unwarranted . She said the CM was discharged after testing negative, adding that he was in home quarantine for a week.
“How can you say he was infected two days before the election? His daughter was infected on polling day (April 6) and got herself isolated in her house. There is no room for any controversy,” she said. But opposition parties said the minister was forced to defend the CM and some of her observations were “ill-founded”. As cases rise alarmingly in the state, the CM has convened a virtual meeting on Thursday to assess the situation.
Kerala logged 8,778 new Covid-19 cases and 22 related fatalities on Wednesday, taking the caseload to 1.18 million and the toll to 4,836, according to state government data. Among the districts, Ernakulam reported the highest number of 1,226 cases, followed by Kozhikode with 1,098 and Malappuram with 888.
