The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Kerala Legislative Assembly will convene on Friday to deliberate whether or not to cut short its current session against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 threat .
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the House on Thursday that Independent legislator and National Democratic Alliance partner P.C. George and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) lawmaker K.N. Khader had argued for curtailing the current sitting till the pestilence receded. As a first step, Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan had banned visitors to the Assembly since Monday.
Mr. Vijayan said the public should not be scared but must be vigilant about the contagion and take measures to prevent its spread. He said he had learned that people were reluctant to travel and move about in public. However, there was no ground for such an alarm in Kerala.
The Health Department had effectively contained the illness. Moreover, most persons under surveillance had tested negative for the virus.
Mr. Vijayan said that on Saturday Cabinet Ministers would spread out to districts and hold conferences with respective district collectors and local body office-bearers to cobble together a grassroots level strategy to reassure the public and mitigate the economic fallout and disruption caused by the pandemic.
‘Don’t exaggerate threat’
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala termed the move to shorten the Assembly session as alarmist. He said the government should reassure the public. Ideally, its actions should not exaggerate the threat of contagion and spread unnecessary, fear and panic in society by calling of the Assembly.
Kerala had reported the first coronavirus case in the country on January 30. A student who had returned from Wuhan, a coronavirus hotspot, in China, had tested positive for the flu. Soon, two other returnees from China tested COVID-19 positive. The government isolated and treated them until further laboratory tests proved they were virus-free.
However, the virus reared its head again in Kerala on February 29. Three persons of a family who had returned to Pathanamthitta from Italy had “dodged” the surveillance at Kochi airport by concealing their port of the last departure.
They inadvertently passed on the illness to eight others. The returnees also caused the Health Department to put scores of persons in the district under intense surveillance.
It also prompted the government to impose a partial lockdown. The State closed educational institutions, cancelled summer camps and private tuitions, sporting events, religious festivals, government functions and public gatherings.
The government also attempted to muster popular support to prevent the contagion from overwhelming the public health system by requesting people to take safeguards and keep attendance at weddings and social functions to a minimum until March 31.
