Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 27 (IANS): In a first of its kind in Kerala, the state held a special cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in online mode.

While Vijayan participated from his official residence, the other cabinet ministers took part in the meeting from their office or residence.

This is the first time such a thing has happened and it was decided to go into online mode after the state has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases.

Generally, the weekly cabinet meet takes place on Wednesday and is held at the State Secretariat in the block housing the Chief Minister's office.

The special cabinet meet held on Monday took the decision to pass an Ordinance to effect the passing of the Finance Bill, as the special one day sitting of the Kerala Legislative Assembly scheduled for Monday was suspended last week.

Another decision that was taken was to toe the decision arrived at the all party meeting called last week to decide if a state-wide lockdown is required and the decision was, that the state cannot afford a total lockdown, instead enforce strict restrictions where Covid spread is there.

Now it remains to be seen, if the weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday will also shift to online mode.