With active COVID-19 cases in Kerala starting to show a decline over the past few days, the state government, on February 4, decided to start in-person classes for students from February 7. "The classes for 10th, 11th and 12th standards and college students will begin from February 7. The classes for children from standard 1 to 9, creche and kindergarten will start from February 14," a release issued by the Chief Minister's Office said.
The decision was taken at the COVID-19 evaluation meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The COVID-19 cases in Kerala registered a dip on February 3 with the state recording 42,677 new infections which raised the caseload to 61,72,432. The southern state had reported 52,199 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. Active cases went down to 3,69,073 on February 3 from 3,77,823.
The health department has completed vaccination of 72 per cent of children in the age group of 15 to 18, while the second dose has been administered to 85 per cent of the targeted population, according to the release. The evaluation meeting also took a decision to test the non-resident Keralites and foreign passengers travelling to Kerala only if they show COVID symptoms. The meeting has also decided against overcharging for rapid tests at airports and directions in this regard were issued to the health department.
The government had earlier imposed restrictions at district level on the basis of the number of COVID affected people admitted to hospitals and authorised the Disaster Management Authority to divide the districts into three groups, A, B and C. Currently, only Kollam district is in the C category -- where there will be highest restrictions. While Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Wayanad and Kannur districts are in the B category, Malappuram and Kozhikode districts are in the A category. Kasaragod does not fall under any such categories.
