With the proposal for localised lockdowns in large COVID-19 clusters running into opposition barely hours before taking effect on Monday, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy has called for a review before the plan is implemented.

The administration had opted for a week-long intense lockdown from August 31 to September 6 in 32 containment zones with high disease burden and a quick doubling rate of cases.

Now, revised orders on the containment areas will be issued after a meeting convened by the Chief Minister on Monday.

In a virtual address, Mr. Narayanasamy said he has asked the District Collector to put the idea on hold until the grievances were looked into after receiving several complaints from residents and elected representatives that the areas for barricading were based on obsolete data and without distributing materials to affected residents who had to stay indoor for a week.

On Sunday morning, Vaiyapuri Manikandan, MLA, cut through the barricading at Muthialpet to protest the lockdown measure.

“What is the rationale for forcing around 18,000 people to stay indoor and sealing off 42 roads in a ward with, say, 50 to 60 cases?” he wondered. Besides, curtailing movement would lead to livelihood loss for a significant section of the population and no assistance had been distributed before implementing the proposal, he said.

Complaints about disproportionately large areas put under lockdown have also emerged from places such as JJ Nagar and Shakti Nagar.

Mr. Narayanasamy said that it was untenable and unacceptable to cordon off entire neighbourhoods of 1,000 to 3,000 families and ask the people not to come out for a week. “The barricading should only be at the street level in COVID clusters,” he said.

The Chief Minister said the Government was undertaking several measures, from scaling up testing to 3,000 samples a day in urban-rural areas, launching fever clinics and recruiting 458 additional health manpower, including doctors and nurses. “However, containment of COVID-19 can be achieved only with the support of the public through their adoption of personal safety measures,” he said.