At the stroke of the midnight hour on August 14, the lockdown that has been in force in Thiruvananthapuram city since July 6 will be lifted. Malls, hypermarkets, hotels, salons, beauty parlours and barber shops will be opened. Sports will also be permitted. Night curfew, too, has been withdrawn.
But schools, cinema halls, swimming pools, parks and theatres will remain shut, and social, religious and political gatherings will stay banned.
This relaxation, however, is no indication that the virus has been satisfactorily contained in the urban areas. On Friday, the district recorded 310 fresh cases, the highest in Kerala. And 45 percent of the new cases on Friday are in non-coastal areas.
The spread that began along the coast is now sweeping over the urban areas. City areas like Karamana, Poojappura, Pattom, Medical College, Mudavanmugal and Peroorkada are witnessing a spike in cases.
"Lockdown has been further relaxed so that the usual social and economic activity would resume but with certain restrictions," district collector Navjot Khosa said. This is also an official acknowledgement that any more suppression of the economy could have troubling consequences both in terms of jobs and government revenue.
The official advice is nearly parental: Do what is necessary to survive but take care.
All offices, both government and public, will be allowed to function with 50 percent staff. Till now, government offices were allowed to open with only one-third staff, and private offices were allowed with only 25 percent staff.
However, shop timings will be same as before, from 7 am to 7 pm. Hotels can open provided they keep their conference and banquet halls shut.
Restaurants and cafes can operae till 9 p.m. but here will be only parcel service. Bars and beer parlours, too, can open but their functioning will be limited to takeaway services. Even congested fish markets will be allowed to function "but with strict entry-exit protocols".
Nonetheless, attendance at marriages and funerals will have to be kept at the minimum possible, 50 for marriages and 20 for funerals. This is because many clusters in the outskirts of the city, especially in Kuttichal and Parassala panchayats, have been the result of protocol violations at funerals in these areas.
Restrictions have also been lifted in areas designated as 'containment zones' within city limits, namely wards like Kazhakuttam, Ulloor, Pattom, Muttada, Kudappanakkunnu, Kowdiar, Kunnukuzhy, Thycaud, Karamana, Chala and Thampanoor.
Nothing has been officially said about removing the 'critical containment zone' status of the 18 coastal wards of the Corporation.
But on the ground, it is nearly business as usual in these coastal wards after fishing activities resumed this week. This is despite he fact that all coastal wards, except for the Poonthura cluster, are reporting high number of cases. Wards like Thiruvallom and Valiyathura, which had seemed largely unaffected for the whole of July, have suddenly seen a flare up of virus activity.
It is also feared that fishing would further amplify the cases. "From the start of this week, there has been a huge crowd of people at the Vizhnjam harbour readying to go fishing. And hours later when the boats haul in the fish, there is an even bigger crowd. People from affected wards like Kottapuram, Beemapally, Puhenthope and Valiyathura will mingle with others and no one seems worried about the consequences. The fishing community, left without income for nearly two months, is desperate to earn something. Social distancing is no more possible," a health officer posted at Vizhinjam said.
Some of the guidelines issued by the Collector has been flouted, and even the police force know they can do nothing about it.
For instance, autorickshaws, which retail vendors use, were barred from entering the wharf. Scores of them have violated the order with impunity. It was also said women vendors keep away from selling fish. But they have.
Since the police have warned them, these women don't go selling fish door to door but customers come in droves to them, violating all social distancing norms.
