Express News Service
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The authorities gave permission to organise a slew of festivals together with Thrissur Pooram forward of the meeting polls eyeing votes with out being attentive to the attainable rise in Covid circumstances after the elections.
Interestingly, the choice has resulted in Sree Koodalmanikyam temple in Irinjalakuda organising final 12 months’s cancelled 11-day pageant and this 12 months’s pageant in lower than a month.
With the pandemic scenario altering and check positivity price rising, well being officers have warned that if these festivals are organised with out adhering to the protocol, the state would witness a pointy surge in circumstances.
A senior officer on the Directorate of Health Services, on situation of anonymity, stated, “The administrative permission for festivals like Thrissur Pooram was given without even asking the medical reports or assessing the ground realities. During the last week of March, the test positivity in Thrissur was a mere 1.81 per cent which has now jumped to 9.4 per cent. There are two more weeks left for Thrissur Pooram and the TPR will double by that time.”
If festivals like pooram which are a magnet for lakhs of individuals are organised with out adhering to Covid protocol, the scenario could be hazardous.
“Suppose two lakh people throng Thrissur for pooram on April 23, the TPR will shoot up and it will spell doom for these people. That will be the case of all festivals for which the state government had given permission before the polls,” he stated.
Koodalmanikyam Devaswom was given permission to carry its last-year’s pageant which was cancelled this 12 months. The pageant was organised from March 28 to April 7.
And this 12 months’s pageant can be held from April 24 to May 4.