On Friday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that the statewide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 has been extended till May 30. Following a noticeable decline in Test Positivity Rate (TPR), i.e. the number of people likely to contract the virus in a group of 100, triple lockdown imposed in 3 districts - Thrissur, Thiruvananthapuram, and Ernakulam has been lifted, added the CM. However, Malappuram will continue to be placed under triple lockdown due to the high test positivity rate.

The CM also said that the government will take necessary measures to ensure enough medicines to treat black fungus, a disease that's on the rise in India and has been declared as an epidemic by the Indian government. On Friday, Kerala reported 29,673 new COVID-19 cases and 41,032 recoveries. With this, the total number of active COVID cases in the state fell to 3,06,346.

Lockdown in Kerala is extended till 30 May.

Tomorrow onwards, no triple lockdown in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Thrissur as active cases have come down and TPR is below 25%.

Triple lockdown in Malappuram will continue.

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) May 21, 2021