Shops in malls of Kerala will be allowed to open, with COVID-19 protocol in place, from August 11 onwards, as part of the relaxations in COVID-19 restrictions enforced by the state government. The stores in malls will follow the same conditions as other shops which have been allowed to open in the state from August 5.
"Designated persons shall be engaged at the entry points of the mall to ensure that all the COVID-19 protocols including masks, hand sanitisers, temperature checking, social distancing and other conditions stipulated in the [earlier] order for entering into shops are strictly followed," says a release by Chief Secretary VP Joy.
According to the earlier order, only those who have got at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccination or tested negative in an RT-PCR test within the last 72 hours or have a certificate proving they had recovered from COVID-19 within a month, will be allowed inside shops, banks and other establishments. Kerala Health Minister Veena George had, however, said in the Assembly that these conditions for entering shops were "desirable," and didn’t say it was mandatory.
The new release by VP Joy also said that special teams will be deployed by district collectors to ensure the functioning of Rapid Response Teams (RRTs).
While the relaxations are hailed by a section of people, there has also been criticism of the move, coming at a time Kerala continues to report over 20,000 fresh cases of COVID-19 most days. On Saturday, another 20,367 people tested positive for the coronavirus, while 139 people died from the disease. There are at present a total of 1,78,166 active cases. The test positivity rate across the state, too, remains at 13.35% and has not reduced in the past weeks. The complete lockdown on weekends which the state has been following for months was also relaxed recently and will be followed only on Sundays.