19 new cases take Kerala's total to 126, over a lakh under watch

Addressing the media here , Vijayan said though the total number of positive cases was 138, 12 of them have been discharged by now.

"Of the 19 new cases, nine are in Kannur, three each at Kasargode and Malappuram, two in Thrissur and one each in Wayanad and Idukki. At present there are 1,01,402 people under observation at homes while 601 are in the hospitals," he said.

Vijayan said the state is fully ready to tackle whatever is going to come as 879 private hospitals with 69,434 beds are ready and 1,640 doctors who retired after 2012 are also being tapped for their services, if need arises.

"There are 5,607 intensive care beds that is kept ready. Apart from that 15,333 rooms are also ready in 716 hostels. Besides that community kitchens are also ready and some of them are already functioning. In 861 village councils of the total 941, the place for the community kitchen has been identified and it will be a matter of days when these kitchens will start working in full swing. Moreover over 800 private hotels in the state have expressed their desire to hand over their kitchen to be used for preparation of food," he said.

Vijayan also said that they were now ready with a website "and all those in the age group 20 to 40 can register online, as we are getting ready an army of volunteers who will, if a need arise, work to ease the difficulties faced by the people, who are sitting at home".

"They will act as delivery people and will double up if a patient needs help. These are being done to see that if there is a need, then things will fall into place immediately," he added.

Vijayan reacted sharply to news that  in some places, migrant labourers were asked to vacate their rented premises.

"In no way is this acceptable and instructions have gone to district authorities that such a thing should not happen. In fact these people are our guests in our state and all should treat them nicely," he said.

He also welcomed the financial package of the Centre that was announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

"We feel that we will be able to use the package to our benefit.

"Moreover, today Union Minister Sadanada Gowda called me on the directions of the Prime Minister. He expressed his happiness in the way we have been dealing with Covid-19. From now on every day we will be providing a detailed daily report to the Centre," said Vijayan.

Compared to the past two days, in the state, the police on Thursday did not have that tough time as in many places, people were behaving with more responsibility.

"But we have had a few cases where the police behaved in an undesirable manner against people who were supposed to do their duties. Such acts done by a small section will take away the sheen of the excellent work done by the huge majority of the police," said Vijayan.

However, the police registered 2,098 cases and 2,234 were arrested while 1,447 vehicles was taken into custody as the owners were not able to give a convincing reply on why they were out on the streets.