Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today announced that places of worship, shrines, shopping malls, hotels, hospitality units, restaurants and offices in Kerala will be open to the public from June 09. These places can open on June 08 for cleaning and disinfecting, and make arrangements to receive the public from the next day.
The Kerala government has decided to follow the standard operating procedures issued by the central government in opening up these places, in toto. People aged over 65 and children below 10 should stay at home as per the central guidelines. Use of masks, handwashing with soap, use of sanitiser, wherever possible; maintaining six feet distance, thermal checking of temperature, maintenance of registers, and separate entry/exit points, wherever possible are some of the general guidelines mentioned in the SOP issued by the central government.
Apart from these general guidelines, the State government has come out with few additional instructions to be followed at all these public places.
1. Distribution of food, refreshments and offertory blessings (prasadam) in places of worship should be avoided.
2. Do not give sandalwood paste or ashes from a plate.
3. No handshake or physical touching during ceremonies.
4. Depending on the size of the place of worship, social distancing arrangements to be made to accommodate about 15 people per 100 square meters, subject to a maximum of 100 people at a time.
5. Collect the name and phone number of the persons who come to the places of worship. They should bring their own pen.
6. Work from home should be provided to those living in containment zones.
7. Lift operators must be present so that everyone does not press the lift buttons.
8. Railings on ramps and stairs should not be touched. Hearing-impaired persons must wear gloves.
9. Offices should make arrangement for submitting grievances online and have a mechanism for answering these complaints online. Visitors should refrain from submitting complaints directly.
10. Malls also should fix the maximum number of people who can be there at a time. There should record the name and phone number of visitors.
11. The plates and glasses served in hotels, restaurants, tea shops and juice shops must be washed in hot water.
12. Sabarimala visit will be managed by Virtual Queue system with not more than 50 people at one time. A thermal scanner will be installed at Nilakkal, Pampa and Sannidhanam. Use of mask is mandatory. Gloves and mask will be compulsory for Devaswom employees. Children below the age of 10 years and those above 65 years of age will not be allowed as per central guidelines. Pujaris should not distribute prasadam.
111 new cases & 22 recoveries today, total 973 patients under treatment
Five new hotspots, total 128
Thiruvananthapuram, June 05: Kerala today reported its highest number of 111 new Covid-19 cases on a single day. Giving details, Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan said that this is the first time the number of newly confirmed cases on a single day reached three digits and looking at the numbers since June 01, the situation is getting serious. 50 of these new cases are in returnees from overseas and 48 have come back from other States. 10 have got infected through primary contact and three are health workers. At the same time, 22 patients under treatment have tested negative today.
The district wise list of those who tested positive are: 40 from Palakkad district, 18 in Malappuram district, 11 from Pathanamthitta district, 10 in Ernakulam district, eight from Thrissur district, five each in Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha districts, four from Kozhikode district, three each in Idukki and Wayanad districts, two from Kollam district and one each in Kottayam and Kasargod districts.
UAE-22, Kuwait-15, Saudi Arabia-4, Tajikistan-4, Oman-2, Italy-2 and Qatar-1 make up the 50 from abroad while Maharashtra-25, Tamil Nadu-10, Delhi-4, Andhra Pradesh-3, Karnataka-3, Uttar Pradesh-1, Haryana-1 and Lakshadweep-1 add up the 48 from other states.
Seven patients from Kasargod district, five in Thrissur district, four each from Alappuzha and Ernakulam districts, and one each in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode districts are those who were cured of Coronavirus. 973 patients are still under treatment for the disease in the State.
1,77,106 persons are under observation in various districts of the state. Of these, 1,545 are isolated in hospitals and 1,75,561 are under quarantined at their homes or institutional quarantine centres. 247 people were admitted to the hospital today.
3,597 samples were tested today. Till now, 79,074 samples have sent for testing and 74,769 samples have been confirmed with no infection. 19,650 samples were tested as part of sentinel surveillance and out of these, 18,049 were negative.
Five places were declared as new hotspots today. They are one each in Kannur and Kozhikode districts and three in Wayanad District. There are currently 128 hotspots in the State.