Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday announced a state-wide lockdown starting Saturday till May 16 to tackle the second wave of COVID-19 situation in the state.

The lockdown will start from 6 am on May 8 till May 16. "The entire state of Kerala will be under lockdown from 6 am on 8 May to 16 May. This is in the background of a strong second wave of COVID-19," Vijayan said in a tweet.

The chief minister on Wednesday highlighted the "serious situation of COVID" in the state and indicated the possibility of a lockdown, saying that the "situation calls for imposing more restrictions in the state".

"Kerala is going through a serious situation with COVID spreading rapidly in the state. The test positivity rate (TPR) is not coming down. The situation calls for imposing more restrictions in the state," said Vijayan.

Kerala so far has 3,76,004 active COVID-19 cases. In the last 24 hours, the state registered 18,789 new cases and 58 related deaths, as per the official data released by the union health ministry.