Wearing mask made mandatory again in Kerala, re-imposes fines for violation

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has issued an order to the public to wear masks in public places, gatherings, workplaces and during travel from Tuesday. Violation of the mask requirement will be punishable under the Disaster Management Act, it said.

The decision comes as the number of Covid victims in the state is on the rise. The state on Monday reported 3,000 new Covid cases and 12 deaths, with a Test Positivity Rate (TPR) of 18.33%. This was the highest TPR in the last 133 days.

The government had issued a similar order on April 27, when cases began to rise after the fall of the third wave led by Omicron in January-February. But the police only rarely imposed a fine for the violation.

This time, however, the state police chief issued special instructions to all district police chiefs to make the mask mandatory and to enforce the order.

Rs. 500 was imposed as fines for not wearing masks before revoking the mandate. All control measures, including crowd control measures, were lifted by the government after the third wave subsided, from April 7, the NIE reported.

Although the penalty for failing to wear masks was lifted, the advisory on using masks and hand hygiene were present.

In the last 24 hours, 11,793 new Covid cases and 96,700 active cases were reported in the country.