The State has been forced to up the ante in view of the utterly irresponsible defiance of the guidelines by a few persons who have arrived in the state from Gulf countries.

As part of the stepped-up drive against recalcitrant people, the Police have registered a case against a 47-year-old person who returned to Kerala from Dubai on March 11. The man had been told to be in self-quarantine at home. But he continued to roam around freely till March 19, when the result of the Covid-19 test turned out to be positive.

For more than seven days, the man attended family and public functions contacting a large number of people in shocking disregard of the guidelines. Two MLAs who came in contact with him are also in self-quarantine.

While the police deserves praise for taking prompt action against the man who belongs to Kasaragod district, the failure of the health department and administration to ensure that he remained in self-quarantine, needs to be probed and cases filed to prevent recurrence of such unfortunate incidents.

Meanwhile, Kerala has reported 12 fresh cases of Covid-19 infection, taking the number of confirmed cases in the State to 40.

Six of the cases were reported in Kasaragod district, four of them being primary contacts of the Dubai returnee. Five are UK citizens who have been part of a 19-member tourist group. The remaining person belongs to Palakkad district.

To say that Kasaragod situation is pretty grim is only to state the obvious. The seriousness of the situation could be gauged from the body language of both Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Health minister K K Shailaja at their daily press briefings on Friday. For the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19, Pinarayi, who never appears flustered, betrayed his concern at the turn of events. Worry was writ large on the face of the Health Minister, too. The CM made no secret of his annoyance at the continued defiance of the Government’s instructions.

The Government’s anger over the shocking state of affairs was reflected in the orders passed specifically for Kasaragod district. All government offices in the district would remain closed for a week and all places of worship for two weeks. Shops and commercial establishments would function only from 11am to 5pm. As many as eight cases have been filed against shop-owners who ignored these orders with the district collector himself out on the streets barking orders in an effort to get a grip on a difficult situation.

The Chief Minister has also said that Kerala would fully cooperate with the Janata Curfew announced by the Prime Minister. State-owned transport buses and Kochi metro would not operate on Sunday, he declared.

Kerala Government has also announced aRs 20,000-crore package to revive the economy. A major component of the package is that in April and May, a loan of Rs 2000 crore would be made available to members of Kudumbashree. Another Rs 2000 crore would be allotted to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Two instalments of social security pensions, due to be paid in April, would be paid this month, benefiting 50 lakh people. A section of BPL families who do not get this pension would be given Rs 1000 each this month. Besides, all ration card holders, irrespective of whether they belong to APL or BPL would get one month’s ration free. As many as 1000 hotels selling lunch at Rs 25/- would be opened soon. (IPA Service)