Kerala Secretariat Shut Following A Spurt In COVID-19 Cases

The Kerala capital is under a triple lockdown following a spurt in the number of Covid cases through contact.

All offices, including the state secretariat, remained closed and will continue to be so for the next week. On the first day, the ministers and senior bureaucrats worked from home, but their offices will function from the secretariat with minimum staff from Tuesday.

The entire city has been cordoned off, with all entry and exist points closed. Only travel related to medical emergencies are allowed as the state capital is home to a number of leading hospitals, which will continue to receive critical patients from outside.

On the first day of the lockdown, only medical shops were allowed to open. But shops selling essential goods will be allowed to open from 7 and to 11 am from Tuesday.

The clampdown came a day after Kadakampally Surendran, minister in charge of Thiruvananthapuram district, said that the city was sitting on a volcano that was capable of erupting any moment. It was necessitated by the fact that the capital’s roads and public places were getting crowded, with people showing no hesitation to come out on to the streets, showing total disregard to the norms of social distancing and self-protection in the form of hand sanitisation and face masks.

It was announced earlier that police would ensure supplies of essential items to households, but it has since been decided that residents can buy their essential items from neighbourhood shops.