Kerala IMA unit rules out complete state-wide lockdown

Thiruvananthapuram, July 23 (IANS) Even as the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala is mulling to enforce a state-wide lockdown, the state unit of the Indian Medical Association said it won’t be a good idea to do that.

State President of IMA, Abraham Varghese on Thursday said the situation at the moment does not warrant a state-wide lockdown.

“Now that there has been a community spread, a more effective strategy would be to enforce area-wise lockdown and not a state-wide one. Things at the moment do not require such a strategy and if it needs to be done, it would be appropriate to take a call, later,” said Varghese.

Vijayan on Wednesday, when asked if a fresh state-wide lockdown is on the anvil in view of the consistent spike in coronavirus cases, had said that though things look like that, a final decision would be taken only after wide ranging consultations.

Kerala broke all records on Wednesday as the number of Covid positive cases on a single day crossed 1,000 for the first time and touched 1,038, taking the total cases to 15,032, with 8,818 presently positive.

By now, 50 Covid deaths have been reported in Kerala.

Presently in the state there are over 110 clusters and 397 hotspots.

With Vijayan calling an all party meeting to discuss Covid on Friday evening, a final decision on what should be the strategy would be decided, as he wishes to take a collective decision, for fear of a backlash later, especially the Congress and the BJP now blaming Vijayan for the increasing number of Covid cases.

–IANS

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