Kerala will begin inter-district bus services to neighboring districts. Meeting the press on Monday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that public transportation can be restored within two nearby districts. Buses within districts had restarted earlier in the state. The Chief Minister said that people who travel within the state and to visit another place for a few days will not have to follow quarantine.
The Chief Minister reiterated that the state has no community spread of coronavirus. He said that there are about 30 cases where epidemiological linkage cannot be traced, but that is not a factor of community spread.
“Many cases in one place without tracing epidemiological linkage is community spread. But in Kerala, all those cases are from different places. People cannot remember all their contacts, so some may be missing in the route map. So the current cases without epidemiological linkage can be considered only as secondary contacts,” he asserted.
He said that the state has been following certain procedures in dealing with COVID-19 which has been successful.
“Trace, quarantine, isolate, test and treat was the method we followed. Even many other countries had skipped the first two steps. But Kerala succeeded. The average basic reproductive number of coronavirus is 3 globally. But in Kerala, it is 0.45. If Kerala had gone by the global numbers, within two weeks the state would have seen more than 25,000 cases and more than 250 deaths. But that did not happen here because there is no community spread here,” the Chief Minister said. He added that after May 7, the majority of the cases are from people returning from outside the state or country.
The government also allowed wedding functions with a maximum number of 50 guests. “Earlier, all marriages in all other temples were allowed. Guruvayur had some restrictions, now that is removed. Marriage can be conducted at Guruvayur Sree Krishna temple with maximum 50 attendees,” the Chief Minister said.
Shooting for cinema and TV serials are allowed to start with a limited number of people. 50 people are allowed for cinema shoots and 25 people for television program shootings. Outdoor shootings are banned.
57 new coronavirus cases were reported from Kerala on Monday. Among which, 55 people are returnees to the state. 27 cases among the 55 are from foreign countries and 28 cases came from other states. One of the positive cases is an Air India staff member and one is a doctor from Kasaragod district.
18 coronavirus cases have recovered on Monday. The state recorded 11 COVID-19 deaths.