600 parents booked in Kerala for flouting COVID rules as wards take KEAM entrance exam

On Wednesday, Kerala police filed a case against about 600 parents of students who appeared for Kerala Engineering Architecture Medical (KEAM) entrance exam, for flouting COVID-19 protocol on July 16. Photos and videos of people gathering outside the examination centre were circulating on social media.

Case registered against 600 parents

The police team will verify the pictures and videos from outside examination centres to identify each person. The case was registered under relevant sections of the Kerala Epidemic Diseases Ordinance 2020, ANI reported. Senior BJP leader Sobha Surendran on July 17 shared the pictures of parents crowding outside St Mary's Higher Secondary School in Pattom and criticised the Kerala government. 

Reacting to the news of students who appeared for the exams testing positive for Coronavirus, Surendran on Tuesday had said, "This is what all of us warned about, and yet the authoritarian, clueless Kerala Chief Minister went ahead and did it anyway. A ticking time bomb."

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Meanwhile, at least five of the more than 88,000 students, who took up the KEAM examination held recently across the state, have tested positive for COVID-19, PTI reported on Wednesday. While three students were found to be infected by the virus on July 21, two others tested positive on Wednesday, district officials said. The state government has been facing criticism from the Opposition parties for holding the exam despite the high prevalence of COVID-19 cases in the state.

The state on Wednesday reported 1,038 COVID-19 cases, its first-ever single-day tally above 1,000, taking the total cases reported to 15,032. 

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(With agency inputs)