Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday flagged community transmission as the emergent threat to the State’s COVID-19 containment strategy.
The increase in the number of arrivals from abroad and other regions, including epidemic hotspots, in the country had caused an upsurge in SARS-CoV-2 positive cases.
The situation required the active involvement of the community to prevent the spread of the disease.
Elected panchayat and municipal members should form committees at the ward level. They should tour neighbourhoods and ensure the safety and welfare of persons in quarantine. Moreover, the committee members should fan out across neighbourhoods and persuade citizens to wear masks, observe social distance, wash their hands, and disinfect commercial premises.
The committees have to ensure that aged persons and children under the age of ten are kept apart from persons quarantined at home.
The Health and Police Departments should prepare a repository of the details of persons in quarantine in their respective jurisdictions. The police detected 2,036 cases of persons venturing out into the open without wearing masks. They found that 14 persons jumped home quarantine. The police would soon start levying fines on such violators.
He said the panchayat and municipal watch system would spearhead the State’s pandemic prevention strategy. Their role and responsibilities would increase as the fourth phase of the COVID-19 lockdown progressed. The police and health authorities would assist them.
Mr. Vijayan said wayside eateries could not serve food to customers. He did not specify about tea stalls. However, he reiterated that restaurants and eateries could only serve food as takeaways.
Online classes
The Chief Minister said private teaching centres should desist from offering on-premise tuition to students. They could teach students online. Hospitals should curb the rush of patients.
He said textile shops, including multistoreyed ones, could open for business. But parents should leave children behind at home when they go shopping. Wholesale cloth showrooms and studios could open for business. The government could not allow people to travel crammed into private vehicles.
