Kerala schools, colleges to reopen, Sunday lockdown lifted

Thiruvananthapuram, February 8, 2022

With Covid cases in the third wave declining in Kerala, a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday decided to relax the near-lockdown mode that was there on the previous three Sundays.

The other important relaxations are reopening of schools and holding of classes in full capacity from February 28 and until then all classes will be held with 50 per cent attendance.

The meeting also decided to see how best important events like Aluva Sivarathri, Maramon Convention and the famed Attukala Pongala be held with increased participation and for this a proper analysis would be done and a decision will be taken shortly.

Also on the anvil is what sort of protocols should be observed as February is the month when there are festivals in temples in North Kerala districts.

Another decision that has been taken is the opening of post-Covid clinics across the state and Vijayan has asked the Health Department to see appropriate action is taken against private hospitals which have without proper reason given monoclonal antibody treatment to Covid patients.

The third wave of the pandemic struck the state badly as on many days in the past month and early this month, the daily Covid positive cases had touched 50,000 or close to that number.

In the past few days, the daily cases have witnessed a declining trend and even with a total of around 3 lakh active cases, the saving grace was those in hospital were only around 3 per cent.

IANS