Night curfew, Sunday lockdown in Kerala to be withdrawn

Kerala government has decided to lift the night curfew and total shutdown on Sundays as well as to reopen higher education institutions as part of easing the restrictions imposed in view of Covid.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that residential educational institutions for those above the age of 18 would be allowed to function, provided all teachers and students take at least one dose of vaccine. The institutions should be following a bio-bubble model.

Higher education institutions will reopen from October 4 for final year degree and post-graduate classes. Students who take at least one dose of vaccine would be allowed. Vaccination to school teachers would be also given priority as part of efforts to reopen schools, especially for tenth and plus-two classes.

The Chief Minister said that the state was witnessing a decline in Covid's intensity.

The seven-day average TPR of the state came down and only around 13 per cent of the infected were requiring hospitalisation.

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Vaccination was also progressing well with 76.15 per cent of people above the age of 18 getting at least one dose and 28.73 per cent getting both doses. The TPR reported in the state on Tuesday was 15.87 per cent, with 25,772 fresh cases, which is also low compared to previous days.

International experts who attended a meeting convened by the Chief Minister recently had suggested that the state could ease the restrictions as the severity of the infection in the state was coming down.

The state had witnessed a surge in Covid cases by the end of August after the Onam festival. At present 2.37 lakh persons in the state were Covid infected of which only 32,935 were in the hospital.

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