Amidst the coronavirus outbreak in Kerala and other parts of India, the LDF government has decided to cancel school for students upto Class 7 across the state. Further, all public meetings will be cancelled and regulated till the end of March, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Tuesday. This includes exams for children studying under all educational boards including CBSE, state syllabus and ICSE.
However, examinations for students from Classes 8 to 10 will be held as scheduled. All Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations and Class 11 and Class 12 examinations will go on as scheduled.
The Chief Minister also said that the all public programmes by the government will be cancelled in March.
“The government, people and all organisations have to work together to combat this,” the CM said.
The CM has asked all tutorial and tuitions classes, anganvadis, madrassas not to conduct sessions till end of March. “This is also a season of religious festivals. We want to ask all organisers to avoid festivals,” he said.
The CM also said that the cabinet is not asking people to postpone weddings, but to ensure that the weddings are held in a simple fashion with minimum guests. He also asked the Sabarimala temple to go on with its daily rituals, and added it would be better for devotees to avoid going to the temple.
Kerala has seen a rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the last few days. Currently, there are 12 cases of coronavirus in Kerala. This includes a family of three who travelled to Kerala from Italy via Doha, and failed to inform health officials of their travel history. Two neighbours of the family have also tested positive. Other than them, a 3-year-old child who travelled from Italy along with her parents has also tested positive.
The CM also held a video conference with the district Collectors in the state to assess the situation.
While Kerala was the first state to witness positive coronavirus cases in India, the three people who first tested positive in early February recovered fully and were later discharged. However, the new spate of cases has the state fighting the disease on a war footing once again, while also trying to contain any panic.
COVID-19 is a viral flu that is highly contagious and has been spreading across the world for several weeks now. So far, there are 47 positive cases of coronavirus in India. Three have since recovered.
Experts explain that if you have any symptoms of coronavirus, you should call the helpline numbers provided by the government and follow the instructions given by them.
Most people who test positive for coronavirus will only need to undergo quarantine to ensure the virus doesn’t spread. However, people who have underlying medical conditions, as well as older people, need to be extra careful.