Covid-19: Kerala govt makes masks mandatory in public places, re-imposes fine for violation
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Wearing masks in public places has been made compulsory by the state government in the wake of the rise in Covid-19 infections reported in the country and in the state.
The government through an order announced that violation of the mask mandate is punishable under the Disaster Management Act. The state charged Rs 500 for not wearing a mask before the mandate was revoked.
Earlier the government lifted all containment measures including crowd control measures, from April 7, when the number of new cases and active cases were on a declining trend. The penalty for not wearing masks too was lifted, through the advisory on the use of masks and hand hygiene continued.
A Covid-19 review meeting chaired by health minister Veena George on Monday decided to insist people on wearing clothes and asked the medical officers to step up the vigil on cluster formations, in the wake of the rising number of cases in other states.
As per the latest data available with the Union Health Ministry, the country reported 2927 new Covid infections on Tuesday. The active patient numbers also increased to 16,279. The state has been reporting Covid cases under 300 since the beginning of April and the active patients have remained under 2000.
States including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, and Punjab have made masks mandatory.