The Kerala government has announced that it will relax lockdown restrictions on July 18, 19, and 20 on the occasion of Bakrid.
Apart from shops selling essential items in the A, B & C categories, permission will be given to open textile shops, footwear shops, electronics shops, fancy shops and jewellery shops till 8 pm, Kerala Chief Minister's Office has informed.
Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the steps taken by the state government to mitigate effects of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and sought allocation of more vaccine doses.
Vijayan explained the COVID-19 situation in Kerala during a video conferencing held by the Prime Minister.
During the meeting, Vijayan said the delta variant was found in the state during the second wave which began in April and during that time, the test positivity rate reached almost 30 per cent.
"Currently, the test positivity rate has come down to 10.4 per cent. When compared to other states, the second wave started late in Kerala. We tried to delay the peak which helped the health sector," he said.
The Chief Minister said the state effectively followed the testing, quarantine and treatment protocol resulting in becoming the state with one of the lowest case mortality rates in the country.
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"Even though other states have high mortality rates, we managed our case mortality rate at 0.48 per cent," he added.
Vijayan also urged allocation of more vaccine doses for the state. He sought 60 lakh doses of vaccine for the months of July and August and said that a letter in this regard had already been sent to the Prime Minister on July 11.
"Till now, 1.17 crore people of the state received the first dose of vaccine while 44.18 lakh people received both the doses. The state has also arranged special vaccination drives at mental health centres, old age homes and forTribal communities, bed-ridden patients and the transgender community," he said.
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