THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan clarified that a complete lockdown is not practical to control the spread of Covid in the state. The CM made his position clear at a meeting of local body representatives convened to assess the Covid management. The CM also criticized that the ward-level committees have lagged behind in Covid management activities. Covid should be brought under control within two weeks. There must be a significant reduction in the number of patients. For that, the local bodies should be active in the fight against Covid, the CM said.

"Ward-level committees functioned well up to a point. However, the ward-level committees lagged behind in the fight against Covid during the second phase. There was a decrease in vigilance. It must be strengthened. There must be the presence of police in the ward-level committees. Many people are violating quarantine norms. Neighborhood monitoring committees should be formed to monitor them. They should be fined. People violating Covid norms should be placed in special quarantine centers and quarantine costs should be charged from them," the CM said.

While pointing out that CFLTCs are inactive in many places, the CM added that the government will help the local bodies if they have financial difficulties in running the CFLTCs.