Thiruvananthapuram, June 01: Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today announced further relaxations to the lockdown guidelines in concurrence with the central government plan of lifting the lockdown.
Addressing the media, the Chief Minister said, “Kerala prefers a phased and gradual withdrawal of restrictions. The change in the present relaxations will be based on the number of cases. Some decisions will be taken in consultation with the central government. Full lockdown will continue in containment zones till June 30. The restrictions in containment zones will be similar to curfew and passes will be issued by the police only for emergencies. Gathering of people in the State cannot be allowed in the present circumstances as it would fail the reverse quarantine efforts of the government. The State has informed the central government its own reservations about the relaxations to be implemented after June 8th”
Marriages will be allowed at Guruvayoor Temple with maximum participation of 50 persons. This is applicable to all Kalyana mandapams, auditoriums and other halls. Normal opening of schools can be considered in July or afterwards depending on the situation.
Those travelling to Kerala from other states will have to register on the Covid Jagratha portal and get the e-Pass. Those who have to go to other States for work and cross the border daily will be issued 15 days pass and those coming in from other States to work here will be issued 10 days pass.
Inter-district bus travel between two adjacent districts has been allowed with only sitting seat occupancy. Sanitisers should be provided on the bus and the use of the mask is mandatory. Four-wheelers can have driver plus maximum of three passengers while three-wheelers can have a maximum of two passengers.
Indoor shooting for movies will be allowed with maximum participation of 50 people and for television channels with a maximum of 25 people.
Kerala contains Covid spread with an impressive R0 of 0.45, world average 3
Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today declared that Kerala has managed to attain a basic reproduction number of Covid-19 at an impressive R0 of 0.45 as against the world average of 3. In epidemiology, the basic reproduction number of an infection (denoted by R0) is the count of the spread of the infection from one patient to others (how many others are infected from one person).
Briefing the media, the Chief Minister said, “The uniqueness of our preventive measures in tackling Covid-19 has been our emphasis on public health and the five components of Trace, Quarantine, Test Isolate and Treat. In most places with maximum cases, Trace & Quarantine was avoided but other steps were fully implemented. We could contain the spread because of such interventions and the decentralised public health system is our biggest strength. 75% of the active Covid-19 cases in Kerala came from outside and only 25% were from local contact. We could attain a basic reproduction number of Covid-19 at 0.45. Only very few countries could achieve this figure. With the serial interval of an average of five days, we could contain the disease. A higher number would have meant a higher number of cases and more deaths.”
The CM also added that we have been able to effectively implement tracing and quarantine to prevent an outbreak. Home quarantine and contact tracing should be continued vigorously in future. He once again reiterated that there is no community spread of Coronavirus in the State even though the epidemiological linkage or the origin could not be traced in some cases. They will be treated as cases infected through secondary contacts.