Kerala Covid Cases Surge, Announces Complete Lockdown on July 17 & 18; Here’s What’s Open

Kerala government in an order announced Tuesday announced that the state will go under complete lockdown on 17th and 18th July. The state is witnessing a spike in daily Covid infections as 14,539 fresh cases were reported on Tuesday while the test positivity rate is 10.46 percent.

The state government has ordered collectors to declare micro-containment zones and implement stringent restrictions in areas with higher cases. Banks have been allowed to function on all five days while shops are allowed to open till 8pm on the days they were earlier allowed.

This comes hours after, the Kerla woman medical student, who was India’s first COVID-19 case tested positive again. “She is reinfected with COVID-19. Her RT-PCR is positive, antigen is negative. She is asymptomatic,” Thrissur DMO Dr K J Reena told media.

It was on January 30, 2020 that the third-year medical student from Wuhan university tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the country’s first COVID-19 patient, days after she had returned home following semester holidays.

Kerala registered 124 fatalities yesterday, taking the total infection count to 30,87,673 and the toll to 14,810. Malappuram reported the highest number of cases–2,115, followed by Ernakulam with 1,624and Kollam, 1,404. There are 196 local self-government bodies, where the Test Positivity Rate is over 15 per cent.