Kerala Cabinet to hold special meeting to decide on complete lockdown

A special meeting of the Kerala Cabinet is set to be held on Monday (July 27) to make a decision on imposing a complete lockdown in the state, ANI reported. However, the Cabinet has decided to cancel the Assembly session that was scheduled to begin on Monday.

The Kerala government decided to recommend to Governor Arif Mohammed Khan to postpone the one-day session of the assembly, in view of the prevailing situation due to the coronavirus spread. The government had earlier decided to hold the session to discuss the 2020-21 Finance bill.

Slamming the government for not convening the house, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said the decision was “politically motivated”. The Opposition Congress-led UDF had decided to move a no-confidence motion, seeking resignation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan alleging that his office had links with some accused in the gold smuggling case.

On Wednesday (July 22), Kerala witnessed the highest single-day spike in the number of fresh COVID-19 cases, with 1,038 new infections. This prompted the state government to impose a curfew in Aluva in Ernakulam district, Hindustan Times reported. Capital Thiruvananthapuram too is under lockdown until July 28.

So far, Kerala had witnessed 15,032 cases with a death toll of 45. As many as 8,818 people were presently under treatment with 53 of them in ICUs, including nine with ventilator support, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters. A total of 272 people recovered from the infection, while 1.59 lakh people were under observation.