As COVID-19 instances proceed to surge, petition in Kerala HC seeks lockdown on counting day

By Express News Service
KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the state authorities to file a press release on a petition searching for to declare a lockdown from midnight on May 1 to midnight on May 2, which is the counting day of the Assembly elections in Kerala, given the exponential rise in every day Covid-19 instances.

The court docket suo motu impleaded the Election Commission within the case and served discover. The court docket adjourned the petition filed by High Court advocate Vinod Mathew Wilson until April 23.

Advocate R Sivadasan, counsel for the petitioner, identified that the hectic election marketing campaign and the high-voltage rallies by leaders of nationwide and native political events have triggered one other wave of Covid-19 in Kerala. Thus the state, which went to the polls on April 6, is seeing the variety of infections rising steadily. The variety of Covid instances is round 10,000 after the election. It was solely round 2,000 instances earlier than the election notification.

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The Test Positivity Rate (TPR), which was a mere 2 per cent on March 1 and which continued to stay at beneath 4 per cent up until the center of March, rose to six.4 per cent on April 1. It went as much as 12.5 per cent on April 12, and additional to 14.80 per cent on April 16.

The fee of an infection amongst well being staff can also be on the rise. Even if all precautionary measures are scrupulously applied, they won’t serve any sensible objective.

On the day of the declaration of election outcomes, there shall be a big gathering of individuals violating social distancing norms. The police will be unable to take any decisive motion due to their dilemma of being accused of committing excesses on staff of any political celebration for concern of reprisals if the celebration involved involves energy.

The inevitable end result shall be a unprecedented surge within the variety of Covid sufferers inside a number of days, with your complete well being equipment coming to a standstill. Hence, lockdown ought to be declared on counting day, argued the petitioner.