Amidst COVID-19 surge Kerala announces complete weekend lockdown

Thiruvananthapuram, July 29: The Kerala government has announced a complete lockdown on Saturday and Sunday owing to the rise in number of COVID-19 cases.

The Supreme Court had recently lashed out at the Kerala government for lifting restrictions as part of Bakrid. The fact of the matter is that the restrictions were lifted in regions where the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) was above 15.

The TPR in Kerala is 12.35 per cent, which is way higher than the national average of 2.51 per cent. The reports coming in from Kerala indicate that India is on the brink of a third wave, something that the experts have been warning about. On Tuesday, Kerala reported 22,129 fresh COVID-19 cases and the Kerala Health Department said that 156 persons lost their lives. The total death toll now stands at 16,326. Further reports also say that among the new cases, 20,194 people have been infected through the spread locally.

Kerala has become the first state in the last 50 days to report over 20,000 fresh cases in a single day and the state accounted for over 50 per cent of the new cases in the country on Tuesday.