Sunday lockdown and night curfews as part of COVID-19 containment measures will be withdrawn in Kerala, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday.
The CM, in a press meet, said the decision was taken during the COVID review meeting. Health experts had urged the state government to do away with the Sunday lockdown restrictions and night curfews.
After daily cases rose to more than 30,000 after the Onam celebrations, Kerala had brought in night curfew from 10pm to 6am from Monday to Saturday to check the increasing numbers.
In a positive sign, on Tuesday, the state reported 25,772 new COVID-19 infections, having reported over 30,000 cases daily over the past week.
On September 3, the state had reported 29,322 cases and since then the numbers have gradually declined.
With 189 deaths today, the total fatalities till date have reached 21,820, a state government release said.
The test positivity rate (TPR) has also declined after it reached nearly 20 per cent a few days ago.
On Tuesday, the TPR was found to be 15.87 per cent after testing 1,62,428 samples in the last 24 hours, according to the release. With this, 3,26,70,564 samples have been tested till now.
The bulletin also said that since Monday, 27,320 people have recovered from the infection taking the total recoveries to 39,93,877 and the number of active cases to 2,37,045.
Among the 14 districts of the state, Ernakulam recorded the highest with 3,194 cases followed by Malappuram (2,952), Kozhikode (2,669), Thrissur (2,557), Kollam (2,548), Palakkad (2,332), Kottayam (1,814), Thiruvananthapuram (1,686), Kannur (1,649), Alappuzha (1,435), Pathanamthitta (1,016) and Idukki (925).
Of the new cases,125 were health workers, 133 from outside the state and 24,253 infected through contact with the source of the contact not being clear in 1,261 cases.
There are currently 6,18,684 people under surveillance in various districts. Of these, 5,85,749 are in home or institutional quarantine and 32,935 in hospitals.
(With PTI inputs)
