Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday stressed the need for social distancing at places of worship to prevent the possible peer-to-peer spread of COVID-19 infection.
He urged religious leaders and managements of places of worship to take a call on the matter to prevent the outbreak from overwhelming the State and its finite health-care resources. He said in many countries people answered the muezzin’s call for worship by praying in their own houses.
Consensus
Ideally, management of churches, mosques and temples should reach a consensus and decide against allowing huge congregations. They should stick to rituals alone. The government was constrained to restrict the number at weddings to 100 for the time being, he said.
He said the government had extended the last date for applying for welfare pensions by three months to prevent queues at village offices.
He advised migrant workers from crowding at public places for work till the government decided the threat of pestilence receded. The government would request the High Court to instruct family courts to restrict trials to urgent cases alone.
Airports
The Chief Minister suggested a series of steps to strengthen the screening of passengers arriving and leaving through the four international airports of the State.
In a videoconferencing with the Directors of the Thiruvananthapuram, Cochin, Kannur and Kozhikode airports, he asked them to ensure that all domestic passengers and those proceeding abroad were screened.
Steps would have to be taken to ensure the speedy screening of the passengers. More counters should be set up and more personnel should be posted. The government would extend support for creating the facilities.
The airport Directors were asked to look into opening more emigration and customs counters for faster clearance of the flyers and to avoid queues. It should be ensured that there was no crowd in the airports. Relatives coming in large numbers to receive and see off the flyers should be discouraged.
Those showing symptoms of COVID-19 should be transferred from the airport in ambulance to hospital. Those without symptoms and returning after foreign travel should be kept in isolation at home. Their details should be forwarded to the Health Department Cell. They should be sent home under the supervision of the police.
The Chief Minister said more ambulances would be made available in the four airports.
