Kerala cash-strapped, but not to open liquor shops

Govt says security to be deployed for quarantine facilities on priority

No new case of Covid-19 was reported in Kerala on Wednesday. Also, seven persons recovered from the infection.

So far 502 cases have been reported in the state of which only 30 are now under treatment. At present 14,402 are under home quarantine and 268 in hospitals.

As part of sentinel surveillance, 2,947 samples were collected from the priority category of which 2,147 were found negative. Of the 14 districts in Kerala now eight have become Covid-19 free, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at a press conference after presiding over a review meeting here.

Vijayan said the Non Resident Keralities will start returning to state from Thursday. As per the latest information provided by Union home ministry, two aircraft one from Abu Dhabi and another from Dubai will reach Kochi and Kozhikode international airports respectively.

The NRKs are being brought to Kerala in aircraft arranged by civil aviation ministry and ships arranged by defence ministry. Police officers of the rank of DIG have been deployed at the airports and ports to co-ordinate the arrangements including quarantine facilities.

All NRKs coming from abroad will have to stay in government arranged quarantine centres for seven days. However, pregnant women will be permitted to remain in home quarantine.

The state government has also urged the Centre to give relaxation in the 14 day mandatory quarantine prescribed for those coming from abroad. The Kerala government’s plan is to keep the NRKs under quarantine for seven days and on the seventh day, if the person is found negative in PCR test, he would be allowed to go under home quarantine.

The Chief Minister said though the state government had urged the Prime Minister to make Covid-19 test mandatory for expatriates before boarding flight from their respective destination, there is no response from the Central government.

He urged the Centre to arrange special train from Delhi to bring back Malayalee students stranded in north India. Around 1,200 students from Kerala are stranded in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The government has also urged Delhi Chief Minister to arrange special trains for the students.

So far 38,862 passes have been issued to Keralites from other states. Of these 4,298 are from Tamil Nadu, 2120 Karnataka and 98 Kerala. All those barring pregnant women, coming from outside the state will have to remain under quarantine in government facility.

The Chief Minister said academic year in schools will begin in June. In case if schools do not reopen by then, classes will be telecast via Victers Channel and made available on web and mobile platforms as well.

The exams of Class

10,11 and 12 which were deferred earlier, will be conducted between May

21 and 29. The valuation of the state board examinations held earlier, will begin from May 13.

Also, liquor shops will not be opened now, toddy to be made available from Wednesday. The

Chief Minister said the toddy shops will start functioning from May 13.

However, the government has decided not to open liquor shops till the lockdown is lifted. The government is of the opinion that going by the experience of other states, huge police deployment would be required outside liquor shops across the state if sales are to be resumed.

With the NRKs set to return to Kerala in big numbers over the next two weeks, the state cannot afford any laxity in surveillance. Police deployment would be required for government quarantine facilities for NRKs, surveillance and to meet other requirements. Though the cash strapped state government desperately requires money, it does not want to take chances by lowering the guard on the Covid–19 front.