Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 29: Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today announced that there was a broad consensus among the political parties in Kerala to contain the outbreak of the pandemic in view of the serious situation in the state. The CM was briefing the media after an all-party meeting convened today in the wake of the acute and serious situation of Covid spread.

The Chief Minister said, “The Covid situation in the State is serious and we should be able to contain the spread at any cost. Initially, we had controlled the outbreak very well but now in September, there was a staggering increase in the number of patients. About 96% of them are getting infected through contact. Not following Covid restrictions is the reason for this large scale spread. The situation can go worse in the coming days and we need to stop it. We have requested the intervention of all the political parties at a regional level to support the efforts of the government in controlling the outbreak. There should be restrictions in protests and crowding of any kind should be avoided. All political parties were requested to co-operate in this matter. The all-party meeting has unanimously decided to move together in tackling this crisis and also to prevent the spread of Covid.”

The CM also informed that most political parties were of the view that a total lockdown was not a solution. The number of people for personal functions and also for social, political, religious and cultural programmes as well should be restricted. They should be conducted strictly following the Covid norms.

“I also welcome the decision of the Leader of the Opposition to call off any public agitation during this time”, he added.