Kerala Govt permits opening of mall shops from Aug 11 amid COVID-19 surge, read guidelines

The Kerala government recently announced that the shops in malls will be permitted to open from August 11 onwards. The order on Saturday mentioned the shops in the malls will have to follow the same conditions as regular shops and must make all the necessary arrangements for precautions against COVID-19.

The order stated, “Designated persons shall be engaged at the entry points of the mall to ensure that all the COVID-19 protocols including masks, hand sanitizers, temperature checking, social distancing, and other conditions stipulated...for entering into shops are strictly followed.” According to the order, the malls will be open from 7 am to 9 pm on all days, except Sundays.

The Kerala government also warned the shop owners and the customers that flaunting rules will be not be tolerated and that the shops would be under constant check. The release further mentioned, "Special teams shall be deployed by the District Collectors to monitor the effective functioning of the Rapid Response Teams (RRTS) and to ensure that RRTs strengthen surveillance and contact tracing significantly."

The government said that it is the responsibility of the store owners to avoid overcrowding at their shops. Hence, the shop owners inside the malls are required to display the number of customers allowed at a time, the vaccination status of their employees and must provide the customers with masks in case they are not wearing any. The shops must also make sure that the customers are sanitized at entry and while exiting.

The current situation in Kerala

On Saturday, the state reported 20,367 new COVID-19 cases and 139 deaths. With this, the active caseload in the state stands at 1,78,166, while the death toll is 17,654. Amid rising cases, the state’s health minister, Veena George, requested everyone to avoid large gatherings during the Onam festival. According to reports, the minister also suggested that during the festival family visits should be avoided especially if there are small children among the relatives. Currently, Kerala has been responsible for reporting over half of the daily cases in India and multiple restrictions are in place to help reduce the number of cases.

(With ANI inputs)