THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government issued an order directing the public to wear masks in public places, gatherings, workplaces and during travel from Tuesday. It also said that violation of the mask mandate is punishable under the Disaster Management Act.
The decision was taken in the wake of the rise in Covid cases in the state. The state reported close to 3000 new Covid cases and 12 deaths with a Test Positivity Rate (TPR) of 18.33% on Monday. It was the highest TPR reported in the last 133 days.
Earlier the government issued a similar order on April 27 when the cases started rising after the decline of the third wave led by Omicron in the January- February period. However, the penalty was seldom pressed and the police refrained from charging a fine for violation. This time the state police chief issued separate instructions to all district police chiefs to enforce the mask mandate.
The state charged Rs 500 for not wearing a mask before the mandate was revoked. After the third wave subsided the government lifted all containment measures including crowd control measures, from April 7.
The penalty for not wearing a mask too was lifted, through the advisory on the use of masks and hand hygiene continued.
The country reported 11,793 new Covid cases and 96,700 active cases in the previous 24 hours.