Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan withdraws night curfew and Sunday lockdowns in state

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday, 7 September 2021, decided to withdraw Sunday lockdown restrictions in the state. The CM additionally also withdrew the ongoing night curfews that had been implied between 10 pm and 6 am. These discussions were taken up during a high-level COVID-19 review meeting as the weekly test positivity rate fell to 17.91 per cent from an alarming 18.49 per cent.

Kerala CM Vijayan requests civilians to be alert

CM Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday while withdrawing the ongoing restrictions in the state warned the presence of the delta variant of the virus and urged people to follow COVID safety protocols. The CM earlier mentioned that the state had administered more than 3 crore COVID vaccine doses. By Tuesday 3,01,00,716 doses of vaccinations were administered in total. Of which 2,18,54,153 were first doses and 82,46,563 were second doses. 76.15 per cent of people who are above 18 years have taken their first dose of vaccination. 28.73 per cent completed the second dose too.

While speaking about the reopening of schools, the CM said, "In Higher Educational institutions, final year undergraduate and postgraduate classes will begin from October 4. Details regarding the opening of educational institutions are being worked out. Opening of schools will be decided later, all teachers have been asked to complete vaccination by this month."

Kerala HC on 2nd Covishield dose gap

The Kerala High Court on Monday had directed the Centre to allow people to take second dose of the Covishield vaccine after 4 weeks of getting the first jab. This suggestion by the Kerala HC has come in favour of those, who want to take it earlier than the present suggested gap of 84 days. 

"The fourth respondent (Centre) is directed to make necessary provisions forthwith in the CoWIN portal, so as to enable scheduling of second dose of COVISHIELD vaccine after four weeks of the first dose for those who want to accept the second dose after a period of four weeks in terms of the initial protocol of the vaccine," the Kerala HC had said.

COVID-19 sitaution in Kerala

Kerala has so far recorded over 42,27,526 positive cases, out of which, 39,66,557 have successfully recovered and 21,631 have died. As per the latest reports from MoHFW, in the past 24 hours,19,688 new cases, 28,561 fresh recoveries and 135 deaths have been reported. Currently, the total number of active cases in the state is 2,39,338.

Image Credits - ANI