The Tamil Nadu government on Monday announced that it has extended the lockdown till July 31 in view of the steadily increasing Covid-19 cases in the state.
Chennai:
All existing lockdown conditions will continue, the government said.
In a statement issued, the ongoing total lockdown in Madurai and areas under Greater Chennai Police limits which include parts of Kanchipuram, Chengalpattu, and Thiruvallur districts will continue till July 5.
The state government also said that there will be full scale shutdown without any relaxations on all Sundays across the state.
Shops sellings poultry, meat, fish are allowed to operate with certain restrictions, the statement said.
The Tamil Nadu government's decision to extend lockdown comes despite the expert medical committee recommending against extending lockdown after June 30.
The panel held a review meeting with Chief Minister K Palaniswami during which Prabhdeep Kaur, Deputy Director, National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), said the expert committee didn't recommend lockdown extension as it was not the only way to control the virus spread.
The panel also took into account the socio-economic issues of the lockdown while making its recommendation, Kaur said. The panel has suggested tightening of restrictions in the areas where the infection rate was high.
Since the past five days, the state has been recording 3,500-plus Covid-19 cases daily, taking its tally to 86,224 and there has been 1,141 deaths till date.