After the special cabinet meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, it looks like there will be no complete shutdown of districts except in Kasaragod. The Centre had on March 22 asked Kerala to shut down 10 of its 14 districts.
The finer points are yet to emerge but initial information trickling out of the Cabinet hints at a partial shutdown in other affected districts like Ernakulam, Kannur and Pathanamthitta. As for other districts, the general thinking is that the existing restrictions are doing the job and, therefore, nothing more will be required. A top source said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was of the opinion that a complete shutdown, especially when the restrictions were working relatively fine, could cripple the economy beyond repair. Reportedly, the chief minister had also flagged the issue of unemployment in the state's informal sector.
However, it is said the chief minister was willing to let go of his stand that bars would remain open. Many had earlier said there was an economic rationale (the mammoth revenues from the sale of liquor) behind keeping the bars open. Even then, there is still no clarity on shutting beverages outlets where huge and thick crowds were found even on the day after the Janata Curfew. In Vadakara, where a curfew is in place, the police on Monday had to lathicharge customers who had queued up in large numbers before a Bevco outlet. Nonetheless, certain outlets like Royal Park Hotel in Alappuzha have shown a sense of self-discipline and, on their own accord, had shut down their bar and restaurant operations saying it was "unethical" to operate them in the time of COVID-19.
What a partial lockdown means has not yet been spelled out. How different will it be from complete lockdown is also not clear. The restrictions that could be clamped on travel and the purchase of essential goods are major public concerns. The chief minister is expected to come out with a set of guidelines after the high-level review meetings he will be conducting in the evening.
As it is, Kasaragod has the highest number of cases: 19. Ernakulam comes fairly behind, with 12 cases, closely followed by Kannur, 10 and Pathanamthitta, 9. Kozhikode has only 2 positive cases. Health authorities feel the chances of an increase in cases in Kozhikode are high.
After Kerala has taken the stand that a total shutdown of nine districts was uncalled for at the moment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked states to strictly enforce the lockdown announced on March 22. Kerala had, in fact, locked down Kasaragod even before the central directive came, and Kozhikode, too, was put under lockdown on March 22.
On March 23 morning, Modi had tweeted that many were not taking the lockdown seriously. “Please save yourself, save your family, follow the directives seriously. I request the state governments to ensure that the rules and laws are followed,” the prime minister said in the tweet.
On March 22, the Centre called for a lockdown of 80 worst-affected districts in the country in what looked like a desperate measure to counter the spread of the virus. Though initially it was said only seven districts were from Kerala, it was later confirmed that 10 of the 80 were in Kerala. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan quickly issued a Facebook post saying there was no need for any new measures than those already in place.
The Central directive on March 22 had also asked states to issue orders allowing only essential services like hospitals, telecom, medical shops and provision stores.
However, highly placed officials in Kerala say that the Prime Minister's tweet was not aimed at Kerala. “The Centre is aware of the near fool-proof measures we had been taking. Also, we have told the Centre that districts like Kottayam that were affected at the start of the second wave of the virus attack had steadied. Even Thiruvananthapuram had not shown any new cases after the four positive cases recorded last seek,” the official said.
It is also felt that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was concerned about the lockdown's impact on an already fragile economy. The chief minister had been consistently making the point that people should go ahead with their ordinary lives even while being extremely careful.
