Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has gone into self quarantine after Malappuram district collector K Gopalakrishnan was declared positive on Friday.
This is a precautionary measure as the chief minister had interacted closely with the Malappuram Collector at the Karipur airport on August 8, before proceeding to visit the victims of the plane crash at the Kozhikode Medical College.
The Malappuram collector, the assistant collector and 20 other employees of the Collectorate, who had actively taken part in the rescue operations at Karipur, had tested positive on Friday.
Seven ministers - E Chandrasekharan, K K Shailaja, K T Jaleel, E P Jayarajan, A C Moideen, V S Sunil Kumar, Kadannapally Ramachandran - Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, Kerala Chief Secretary Dr.Vishwas Mehta IAS and DGP Loknath Behra, who were with the chief minister during his Karipur visit a day after the tragedy, have also been asked to quarantine themselves. Other people's representatives who were also present were also asked to isolate themselves.
Pinarayi, 3 other ministers test negative
Hours after quarantining themselves, Pinarayi and three other ministers tested negative for coronavirus during antigen tests.
However, the quarantine will continue as antigen tests are not considered confirmatory if results are negative.
The results of antigen tests of Pinarayi, Health Minister K K Shailaja, ministers A C Moideen and V S Sunil Kumarre turned negative.
A brief official statement said that the chief minister will isolate himself at his official residence, Cliff House, in Thiruvananthapuram. He has also decided not to hoist the national flag on Independence Day, August 15. Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran has now been asked to stand in for the chief minister. This will be for the first time a Kerala Chief Minister will be unable to take part in an Independence Day function.
However, because of the COVID situation, it has earlier been decided to do away with the ritual Independence Day police salute. This year, the I-Day function in the capital will be a small solemn affair with just 20 people participating.
Since the usual quarantine period is 14 days, the participation of the chief minister and the ministers in the one-day Assembly session scheduled on August 24 has also become doubtful. Sources, however, said they can participate if they tested negative when tests would be done on them in the coming days.
It is also likely that the chief minister would not conduct his customary sunset briefings during the time of his isolation.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who had also gone to the Karipur airport, has, however, not gone on quarantine, Raj Bhavan sources said.
