Kerala's strategy of combating coronavirus has earned praise from everywhere (File)
The Kerala government today announced that lockdown on Sundays will remain suspended in the state until further orders. An order issued by the state however adds that night curfew from 9pm to 5am will continue on all days including Sundays.
Since May 10, the state had imposed total lockdown on Sundays with limited permissible activities. Two weeks later, Kerala eased the rules and said strict restrictions will not be imposed until June 21.
"Government are pleased to order that lock down on Sundays would remain suspended until further orders (sic)," a state government order read.
Lockdown rules have been eased across the country after the government announced phased relaxations last month in what it called "Unlock1". Some states with higher number of cases have however stuck to stricter rules.
Kerala has turned out to be a striking outlier in the battle against the deadly virus in India.
The state had reported the first COVID-19 case in the country in January and soon became a hotspot. But it controlled the outbreak to a great extent and now there are 17 states that have more cases than Kerala. The state managed to bring the number of infected people down drastically and currently has over 3,800 cases with 22 deaths. India has reported over 5 lakh cases with over 15,000 deaths.
The state's strategy of combating the virus has earned praise from everywhere.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Friday praised the state's efforts and called it "transformatory".
"I think COVID would be a transformatory movement in Kerala. There is a danger of being deluged under the rather deceptive economic slogan that is so dominant in India today and there is widespread resistance to that. But it also suggests that combating bureaucracy, combating red tape, and doing things with exceeding speed, which indeed is what Kerala seems to have done in dealing with Covid," Mr Sen said, news agency PTI reported.