Kerala insists on prior intimation and registration before sending trains

 Thiruvananthapuram, May 26: Kerala Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan has informed the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi that railways should send trains to the State only after prior intimation and the travelling passengers should have mandatorily registered on the Covid Jagratha portal.

 Briefing the media, the Chief Minister said, “Trains are coming to Kerala from all parts of the country and there are no restrictions on it. Our only condition is that there should be prior intimation from the railways. They should give us the list of passengers who have booked the tickets. In the same way, it is important and compulsory for the passengers to register on the Covid Jagratha portal before the journey. We will be prepared to receive the passengers. Those who arrive here are screened at the railway station and sent to home quarantine. But we need to have the list in advance so that we can ensure there is a proper facility for home quarantine. Any failure to do so would undermine the measures taken by the government to ensure proper monitoring and thereby prevent the spread of the disease.”

 The CM mentioned about the incident when the railways sent a train from Mumbai to Kerala without prior information. Despite the Railway Minister being informed of this, railways decided to send another train in the same way. Therefore, the matter was brought to the notice of the Prime Minister. “The government is of the view that people from all areas should come back to the State but at the same time, strict rules must be adopted to prevent the spread of the disease. Registration is unavoidable. There is no other way or else things would go out of control and start community spread.”|, he added.

 About 3.80 lakh people have registered to come to Kerala from other states. Of these, 2.16 lakh passes have been issued and 1,01,779 people have already reached back. 1.34 lakh have registered to come back from abroad and out of this, 11,189 have reached the state till May 25. Certain arrangements are necessary to be made in the state when pravasies reach here. People are coming from areas where the spread of the disease is huge. Naturally, the number of patients here will increase. So far 72 cases have been reported among those who came back from Maharashtra, 71 from Tamil Nadu and 35 from Karnataka. “We need to receive them with care and no one will be excluded”, the CM said.

 Minister of Health & Social Justice, Smt K K Shailaja Teacher; Revenue Minister, Shri E Chandrasekharan, and Chief Secretary, Shri Tom Jose IAS were also present during the media briefing.

CM holds video-conferencing with MLAs and MPs

Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today held a meeting with all the MLAs and MPs in the State through video-conferencing. He apprised them of the next phased of Covid preventive measures being taken by the State in view of the large number of people coming back to Kerala from other countries and other States.

 The Chief Minister informed that all MLAs and MPs, cutting across party lines, have expressed their support for the government's actions to address the current critical situation. Everyone shared the sentiment that Kerala should continue to face this pandemic united. The public representatives have put forth their suggestions and the government will examine all of them seriously. The CM also requested their guidance and support in the work of the ward and panchayat level committees.

 Assembly Speaker, Shri P Sreeramakrishnan; Leader of the Opposition, Shri Ramesh Chennithala; former Chief Minister, Shri Oommen Chandy and Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Shri V Muralidharan were among those present. All the ministers, except three, were also present during the video conference meeting with the Chief Minister.

Kerala Covid-19 Tracker:

67 new cases & 10 recoveries today, total 415 patients under treatment

Nine new hotspots, total 68

Thiruvananthapuram, May 26: 67 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Kerala today. 29 persons from Palakkad district, eight in Kannur district, six from Kottayam district, five each in Malappuram and Ernakulam districts, four each from Thrissur and Kollam districts, three each in

Alappuzha and Kasargod districts are those who tested positive with the virus.

 27 people among the newly confirmed cases are returnees from abroad (UAE-16, Maldives-9, Qatar-1 & Kuwait-1) and 33 have come back from other States (Maharashtra-15, Tamil Nadu-9, Gujarat-5, Karnataka-2, Delhi-1 & Pondicherry-1). Seven are cases of local transmission.

 In the meantime, 10 patients under treatment for Covid have tested negative today. Three patients from Malappuram district, two each in Palakkad and Kasargod districts, and one each from Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Kottayam districts are those who recovered of the disease. There are 963 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Kerala and 415 patients are presently under treatment in various hospitals.

 There are 1,04,336 persons under quarantine across the State. Out of these, 1,03,528 are under observation at their homes or institutional quarantine centres and 808 are under isolation in hospitals. 186 persons were admitted to hospitals today.

 Till now, 56,704 samples have been sent for testing and 54,836 samples have been confirmed with no infection. Apart from this, as part of sentinel surveillance of high-risk category people, 8,599 samples were tested and of these, 8,174 samples have tested negative.

 Nine new places were declared as hotspots today taking the total number of hotspots in the State to 68. Three places in Kasargod district, two each in Kannur and Palakkad districts, and one each in Idukki and Kottayam districts are the new hotspots.

 Briefing the media, Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan also informed about the death of a 61-year-old lady, a native of Kannur district and expressed his condolence. This is the sixth Covid related death in Kerala.

 So far 1,02,279 persons have reached Kerala from foreign countries and other States - 8,721 by flights, 1,621 by ships, 5,363 by trains and 86,574 by road.