The Kerala government has announced that no offline classes would be conducted for students up till class 9 from January 21 onwards after a COVID-19 review meeting on Friday, January 14. The meeting was held to decide on further restrictions to be imposed in the state, given the surge in COVID-19 cases. The government has, however, stated that no weekend curfew or night lockdown will be imposed. While classes for school students till class 9 will be held through online mode, other higher educational institutions can conduct regular classes. 

Kerala on Thursday reported 13,468 COVID-19 cases, increasing the caseload to 53,17,490. Further, 117 deaths were also reported, which raised the total fatalities in the state to 50,369; 21 of the deaths were recorded in the last few days. 

With 3,252 more people recovering from the virus since Wednesday, the total recoveries have reached 52,11,014. However, as the number of recoveries was much less than the new COVID-19 cases, the active cases rose to 64,529, a press release said, adding that as many as 66,796 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

While Thiruvananthapuram recorded the highest number of cases on Thursday with 3,404 fresh cases, Ernakulam recorded 2,394 cases, Kozhikode 1,274, Thrissur 1,067 and Kottayam 913 cases. Of the new cases, 104 were health workers, 120 were from outside the state and 12,553 got infected through contacts with the source of it not being clear in 691, the release said.

There are currently 1,57,292 people under surveillance in various districts, of whom 1,53,994 are in home or institutional quarantine and 3,298 in hospitals, it added.

Meanwhile, the government faced severe criticism against the mega thiruvathira (traditional dance by women) held as part of the district congress of CPI(M), at Parassala on Wednesday. It was held at CSI School ground in Cheruvarakonam in Thiruvananthapuram, in which nearly 500 women reportedly performed thiruvathira dance to songs extolling the virtues of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the LDF government.

(With inputs from PTI)