Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said Opposition parties argued against a Statewide total lockdown. The government had propounded a similar opinion at the all-party meeting held via video link.
The meeting backed the government’s move to strictly restrict social life, commerce, group entertainment, and collective recreational activities, including indoor and outdoor sports, to staunch the tide of new infections.
Mr. Vijayan chaired the conference. He said that highly infectious variants from the United Kingdom and South Africa had caused the pestilence to beset the State again.
The U.K. variant accounted for 40% of the infections in northern Kerala. The State was also wary of an emergent strain that had undergone multiple mutations and was worryingly impervious to drugs. Mr. Vijayan said people had to endure the limitations for their safety. It was incumbent upon the civil society to halt the plague.
“We have lived alongside the COVID-19 threat for a year-and-a-half. The road ahead is long. Society could not afford to drop its guard any time soon,” he said.
The meeting decided to shift education totally to online. Mr. Vijayan said Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala had flagged the scarcity of supplemental blood. Hence, the conference urged citizens between 18 and 45 to donate blood before getting vaccinated. It said blood banks required to be replenished quickly given the public health crisis.
Mr. Chennithala asked the government to be mindful of the difficulties faced by manual labourers, construction workers, motor vehicle employees, and other daily wage earners. The restrictions would further whittle down their meagre income.
Free rations, food kits
The State should bring them under a welfare safety net. He asked the government to distribute free rations and food kits. The government must regulate the fee charged by private hospitals.
Bharatiya Janata Party State president K. Surendran urged the government to ramp up vaccination. The government should reduce the fee for the RT-PCR test. Central funds must be used to set up more medical oxygen plants. Political parties should refrain from creating a vaccine shortage scare. He urged the administration to give parole liberally to prisoners to reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19.
