Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday blamed the Opposition parties for the steep hike in Covid-19 patients seen in Kerala over the last few days. On Thursday, the State diagnosed 4,351 Covid-19 cases, the highest number of patients identified on a single day till date, said Vijayan in his daily media briefing.

The chief minister said that the National Institute of Virology at Alappuzha had confirmed the deaths of ten persons due to the pandemic. This has taken the tally till date to 489.

While Thiruvanantha-puram topped the table of 14 districts with 820 positive cases, Idukki, the hilly district in the Western Ghats  recorded the lowest figure with 104 new cases.

Vijayan blamed the opposition for the steep hike in the number of patients in the State.

“They are bent upon derailing all the good  works being done by the government with the sole aim of increasing the transmission of the disease,”  said the Chief Minister.

“The so called rallies and protest marches organized by the parties are all violating the guidelines specified by doctors. We will certainly take action against them under the Disaster Management Act and other legal provisions. These people think that restrictions to be observed at the time of pandemic were not applicable to them,” the CM added.

He said there was nothing unusual in the NIA questioning minister K T Jaleel on Thursday. “The NIA has sought some details from Jaleel and that’s all. There is nothing unusual in this,” said the chief minister.

The Chief Minister devoted most of his time during the press briefing to tell the journalists about the consequences of peddling fake news. “This is a new phenomenon which commenced in 2017 for winning elections,” said Vijayan. He  warned all media persons that legal action would be initiated against all those who spread fake news in Kerala.