Another total lockdown in Kerala unlikely, says Health Minister

Kerala Health Minister Veena George
Kerala Health Minister Veena George

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Saturday ruled out another total lockdown in the state in view of the uptick in COVID-19 cases after a decline. 

"Another lockdown will severely impact lives and livelihoods. We must take great care to prevent it. However, to curb the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, we will tighten restrictions and home isolation guidelines," the minister said.

On Friday, the health minister had introduced mandatory home quarantine of seven days for all passengers visiting Kerala.

On the eighth day, an RT-PCR test will be conducted on individuals undergoing quarantine.

RT-PCR tests will also be conducted on passengers on the basis of their country of departure — high-risk and low-risk ones.

RT-PCR test is mandatory for passengers from high-risk nations. 

Those who test negative will undergo a home quarantine for 7 days and get tested on the eighth day.

If negative, the quarantine will continue for the next 7 days.

If positive, the individual will be moved into isolation and his/her sample will be sent for genetic sequencing.

Random testing will be done on passengers arriving from low-risk nations.

Kerala reported over 5,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time after a month on Friday. With this, the number of active COVID-29 cases in the state surged to 27,859.

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