The newly elected government in Kerala has on Thursday imposed a complete lockdown in the state from May 8 as the sequel to the exponential rise of the COVID-19 cases. The development of imposing the complete lockdown has come days after the declaration of the assembly election results in which incumbent Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has won the polls for the second consecutive time. 

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who will head the newly elected government in the state, had earlier said that more stringent measures will have to be taken to contain the resurgence of the pandemic in the state where lockdown-like severe restrictions are already in place. According to reports, the complete lockdown will come into effect on May 8 and will stay in place till May 16 to curb the virus spread.

Through imposing the complete lockdown, Kerala has joined the club of the Indian states which had announced the lockdown and strict restrictions to mitigate the virus spread. During the eight days of complete lockdown, extremely essential services will only be permitted while all other establishments will be closed. The state government has said that it has no other alternative other than imposing the complete lockdown.

The development has come at a high time when the state has been reporting peaking COVID-19 cases for a few weeks in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic. On Wednesday, Kerala has reported 41,953 fresh COVID-19 cases pushing the caseload to 17,43,932 and recoveries stand at 13.62 lakh so far including 23,106 fresh discharges reported on Wednesday. 

The state has recorded 58 more deaths pushing the death toll to 5,565. According to the state health department, the active cases now stand at 3,75,685, while the test positivity rate was 25.69. Ernakulam district has topped with 6,558 new cases followed by Kozhikode (5,180), Malappuram (4,166), Thrissur (3,731), Thiruvananthapuram (3,727), and Kottayam (3,432).