The Kerala government issued guidelines further easing COVID-19 lockdown restrictions on July 18, 19 and 20 as part of Bakrid celebrations. 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 & jewellery shops till 8 pm, informed chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office.
On July 14, the state government had imposed a complete lockdown on July 17 and 18 amidst witnessing an upswing in its daily new COVID cases. In an order, the government said that the present categorisation of the local self-government institutions (LSGIs) based on a seven-day average Test Positivity Rate (TPR) will continue. “There will be complete lockdown on 17th and 18th July with the same guidelines as issued for 12 and 13 June,” the order read. The LSG bodies have been reclassified on the basis of the average (Test Positivity Rate (TPR) for the last seven days. ‘A’ category includes those LSGs with TPR less than 6 per cent while B category have LSGs with 6-12 per cent TPR. ‘C’ category will have LSGs with 12-18 per cent TPR and D category includes LSGs with TPR more than 18 per cent. Speaking of COVID-19 situation, the southern state logged at least 13,750 new cases of infection and 130 deaths on Friday (July 16), taking the infection count to 31,30,833 and the death toll to 15,155. State health minister Veena George said 1,30,390 samples were tested in the last 24 hours and the test positivity rate was 10.55 per cent.
Among the districts, Kozhikode reported the highest number of cases–1,782, followed by Malappuram 1,763 and Thrissur 1,558.
