THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As per a Malayalam news outlet, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan did not give the award directly to winners who came to receive the state film awards as a recipient was confirmed with Covid-19. Antigen testing was done on the participants at the ceremony before the awards were presented and one of the recipients tested positive.

Then word spread that the Chief Minister would not attend the function. However, the CM said that he would attend the function. It is learned that the Chief Minister had in his inaugural address said that it was not practical to hand over the awards in wake of this Covid threat.

He announced that the ceremony would be conducted in such a way that awards will be presented on the table in his presence and the winners will have to take it from there. The person who was confirmed with Covid-19 had earlier been excluded from the ceremony.

After this, many criticized the state government for distributing the awards by presenting them on a table instead of handing it directly.