Pinarayi Vijayan won handsomely in the recently conducted elections in Kerala, and the LDF alliance led by him won 99 seats. Apart from dropping all sitting cabinet ministers and inducting new faces, Pinarayi Vijayan made the most news in recent days for even dropping KK Shailaja Teacher, who earned laurels as Health Minister for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic last year by the media, for reasons best known to it. Now, at a time when Kerala continues to reel under severe pressure from the second COVID-19 wave, Pinarayi Vijayan has decided to hold a gala event marking his swearing-in ceremony on Thursday,
According to a report by the News Minute, the swearing-in ceremony of the second Pinarayi Vijayan government will be held with 500 people, which is half of the capacity of the Central Stadium where the ceremony will be held on May 20. Earlier the plan was to conduct the swearing-in ceremony with 750-800 people. This, despite the vigorous opposition Vijayan’s decision to gift himself with a grand swearing-in ceremony, has received from across the state.
“Entry to the function site shall strictly be regulated through entry pass. Entry and exit of invitees shall be regulated as per existing physical distancing norms. Entire seating arrangements including on stage shall be made as per existing COVID-19 protocol,” an order issued by the Kerala chief secretary said. The order also adds that entry to the Central Stadium shall be limited only to persons having COVID-19 negative certificates from RT-PCR, TrueNat and RT Lamp tests, obtained within 48 hours or on the production of a final certificate of COVID vaccination.
Read more: KK Shailaja’s ouster from the Kerala cabinet shows Vijayan’s Covid model is just a PR gimmick
Kerala on Tuesday recorded over 31,337 new COVID-19 infections pushing the caseload to 21,70,651, the state health bulletin said. This, in a significant jump from 21,402 cases that were recorded on Monday. The active cases in the state stand at 3,47,626. Kerala currently has a test positivity rate of around 23.29 per cent. Needless to say, this is not the best time for Pinarayi Vijayan to hold a grand oath-taking ceremony in front of an audience that is 500-people strong.
As a matter of fact, the Kerala chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had urged the swearing-in to be a virtual event owing to the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. Evidently, Pinarayi Vijayan seems to have junked all sane advice, much like his previous cabinet ministers.