The State capital is set to witness a gradual withdrawal of restrictions from the total lockdown that will conclude on Tuesday midnight.
The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation area has been under stringent curbs for three weeks since July 6 on account of the rising COVID-19 cases. However, the government has dropped hints of changing its containment strategy while having no emerging evidence to suggest that the lockdown could slow down the spread of the disease.
Mayor K. Sreekumar, who spoke to media persons, pointed out restrictions will be hereafter confined to containment zones within the city. “There is no need to lock down the entire city beyond July 28. Triple lockdown will continue in the containment zones alone. Social distancing norms and other guidelines will, however, be enforced in other places of the city,” he said.
During his briefing, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that a committee chaired by Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta has been tasked with charting the future course of restrictions in the city.
The district’s COVID-19 graph continued to fall with 161 people, including 13 health workers, being diagnosed with the disease. As many as 137 people contracted the infection through local transmission. With 65 people having recovering from the illness, the number of active cases in the district stood at 2,881, the highest in the State.
Nonetheless, Mr. Vijayan pointed out that it was too early to drop guard in containment activities. While the large COVID-19 clusters in Pulluvila, Puthukurichy and Anjuthengu has begun to spread beyond its extents, limited community clusters in Parassala and Pozhiyoor have shown initial signs of turning into new large clusters.
A police trainee attached to the Special Armed Police (SAP) camp in Peroorkada is the latest among police personnel to contract the infection. The Kanjiramkulam native is believed to have been staying along with around 110 trainees in the camp.
Three doctors
Several health workers in the district have been testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 of late. The latest cases include three doctors in the Chest Diseases Hospital in Pulayanarkotta, taking the total number of infected health workers in the hospital to 11 including five doctors.
A nursing assistant in the Regional Institute of Opthalmology, an employee in the Public Health Laboratory, a laboratory technician and a canteen employee in the Chirayinkeezhu taluk hospital are among the other cases.
Two patients of Government Women and Children’s Hospital in Thycaud have also been diagnosed with the infection.
Meanwhile, the City police seized 34 vehicles on Sunday night for violating the night curfew on travel.
