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Kerala has enforced Covid-negative certificates for entry into malls and markets as it further tightened restrictions at a high-level meeting convened here by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday.
Entry will be allowed also for those who have been administered the two doses of vaccine, an official spokesperson said, even as a declared mass drive continues to be affected due to vaccine shortage.
Also read: Covid-19: Two lakh more Covaxin doses reach Kerala
The Chief Minister reached the state capital after he was discharged from the Kozhikode Medical College where he had been admitted following virus infection immediately after Assembly polls in the state.
2.5 lakh tests planned
The meeting also decided to radically increase the number of tests to 2.5 lakh on Friday and Saturday as part of an intensive campaign. Strict clampdown orders have been issued for containment zones.
Gatherings of more than 50 to 100 people at functions such as weddings, housewarmings and other public events must have prior sanction from the local authorities.
Schools have been ordered to ensure that transportation facilities are made available without fail and in time for students. Tuition centres have been directed to observe extra vigil.
Political slug fest
Meanwhile, Health Minister KK Shailaja accused Union Minister and former state BJP President V Muraleedharan of flogging a political dead horse by suggesting that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had flouted protocols despite being a primary contact to a known Covid-19 case at home.
The Chief Minister had held road shows hiding the fact that he was a potential carrier and, even on being released from a hospital in Kozhikode had allowed his wife to board his car at a time when she had not recovered. Vijayan also did not practice social distancing during the hospital stay, Muraleedharan alleged.
It was only natural that the Health Minister should hold a brief for her leader but it is as laboured as it is futile, the Union Minister said. Chief Minister Vijayan wilfully broke the protocol walking 500 metres to vote at his Kannur home where his daughter had already tested positive, a serious breach of protocol, he alleged.
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