THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even though the Kerala government has claimed that it was able to strictly implement the COVID protocol during the Kerala Engineering Architecture Medical (KEAM) entrance exam held on Thursday, scenes outside the exam centres saw social distancing norms going for a toss.
The arrival of students accompanied by their parents for the examination in the morning session did not pose much risk as it happened in a staggered manner. However, things were quite different when the exam was about to end. As the afternoon session of the exam progressed, parents began crowding outside the exam centres in large numbers.
At St Mary's Higher Secondary School, Pattom, in state capital Thiruvananthapuram, the crowd was so huge that it spilled out into the main road. A few policemen and volunteers deployed in the area looked on helplessly as the crowd increased. There was quite a chaos when the exam ended, with students and parents rushing to get back home.
Similar scenes were witnessed in other exam centres in the capital as well. The gross violation of social distancing norms comes at a time when Thiruvananthapuram district is witnessing one of the biggest spurts in daily COVID cases in the state.
On Thursday alone, 339 new COVID cases were reported from Thiruvananthapuram, with 301 being cases of contact transmission. The source of infection of many people in the capital still remains untraced.