Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today announced the extension of stringent lockdown in Madurai by another two days in the wake of the rising number of corona cases.

In a statement here, he said the total lockdown was initially announced from June 24 to 30 in Madurai and it was extended till July five.

As there has been a rapid increase in cases, it was extended further by another week till the midnight of today.

He said the total lockdown was being extended by another two days till the midnight of June 14 to enable health department officials to organise more COVID care camps and house to house screening and also to prevent the virus spread.

Mr Palaniswami said the essential services announced earlier would continue in Madurai for the next two days, while no relaxations were allowed in Containment zones.

From July 15, all the restrictions and relaxations which were put in place before June 24, would come into force.

Mr Palaniswami had already announced the extension of the lockdown from July one to 31, with some restrictions and relaxations across the state.

The Chief Minister would be chairing a Cabinet meeting on July 14 where a decision on more relaxations in Chennai and three neighbouring districts were expected to be taken as the number of cases had started declining during the last one week.