Tamil Nadu news live: Rs 200 fine for not wearing mask in Chennai

As public health officials draw up plans for the vaccine festival between April 14 and 16, government data shows that less than one in ten of those above the age of 45 in Tamil Nadu have taken at least one dose. Data released by the Directorate of Public Health showed wide variations in coverage between districts. While Ranipet covered nearly 56% of people above 45 years, followed by Tuticorin with 40.2% and Chennai with 39.8%, only 2.9% of the target group in Tirupur had taken the jab. In high prevalence districts such as Coimbatore, Chengalpet and Tiruvallur, the vaccination coverage was 12.4%, 11.7% and 9.9% respectively.

The city police will swing into action from Saturday to ensure pedestrians and other road users wear face masks and follow the pandemic protocol. City police commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal has asked all officers to conduct awareness programmes in their jurisdiction. Police patrols have been to insist that pedestrians wear masks properly even while walking on the road. There are about 250 four-wheelers and around 400 two-wheelers patrolling the city. A police officer said, “We will insist residents and road users wear face masks and maintain social distancing. Will not slap cases in the first few days.”

In the wake of a surge in Covid-19 cases, Greater Chennai Corporation has set a daily target of Rs 10 lakh in fines for not wearing masks and spitting in public among and other violations. Each of the 15 zones has been set a specific target. A week before election day, commissioner G Prakash had hinted at a clampdown including sealing establishments not following SoPs (Standard Operating Procedures). According to the corporation’s recent proceedings, anyone violating quarantine measures will be fined Rs 500, while those not wearing a mask covering mouth and nose will have to pay Rs 200. Spitting in public places, violating social distancing norms in public places or gatherings and non-adherence of guidelines in containment zones will attract a Rs 500 fine.

Amid increasing cases, Southern Railway has stepped up Covid-19 precautions that include making masks mandatory, setting up thermal scanner cameras and implementing contactless ticket checking at stations. To screen passengers faster at stations, thermal scanner cameras and contactless ticket checking system have been set up at major stations. Egmore and Arakonam have one thermal scanner camera each while at Central station, where it was first tried out during the lockdown, now have three cameras. Similarly, contactless ticket checking by which tickets of passengers are scanned using a handheld device or a mobile phone is in force at Central, Egmore, Tambaram, Chengalpet, Arakonam, Katpadi and Jolarpet. Such a checking is available at two entry points in Central.

A college student who came to Chennai airport to board a flight to Andaman was admitted at the Government Hospital in Chengalpet after being tested positive for Covid-19. Swamy, 21, studying at a college in the suburbs, came to board a flight to Andaman scheduled at 8.15am. When officials tested the passengers for Covid-19 Swamy’s report came positive. The officials immediately alerted the authorities concerned who cancelled Swamy’s flight.

With nearly 2,000 retail vegetable and fruit shops likely to be closed in Chennai's largest vegetable market at Koyambedu following Covid restrictions, there is a possibility of imminent price rise of vegetables and fruits, the Koyambedu Vegetable Market Association President, M. Ramesh Kumar, told IANS.

Ten states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan have shown a steep rise in daily Covid-19 cases accounting for 83.29 per cent of the new infections, the Union health ministry said. India's daily cases continue to rise, the ministry underlined. A total of 1,31,968 new cases were registered a day, the highest single-day rise recorded so far in the country.

Chief secretary Rajeev Ranjan said the public should cooperate for effective containment of the virus. “The management of industries, shopping complexes, private organisations, offices and restaurants should ensure thermal scanning, use of hand sanitisers and wearing of face masks by their employees, officials and the public. Persons without face masks should not be allowed to enter the premises,” he said in an order. The government also set up field-level teams of IAS officers, supported by revenue, police and health officials for each of the 15 zones in Chennai, and engaged monitoring officers for each district, to intensify containment measures. Public and private intrastate buses, including Metropolitan Transport Corporation services in Chennai, would be permitted with the passengers restricted to seating capacity. This applies to buses being operated to Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka too.

Governor Banwarilal Purohit has urged people to follow the government’s instructions to fight the pandemic. He requested all people to wear masks compulsorily, maintain social distancing and sanitise hands regularly, a release said.

Andhra Pradesh has just 1.4 lakh doses of vaccine stock remaining, or for a little over a day, given that it is has averaged over 1.1 lakh doses a day since April 1. Much will depend on how soon the 14.6 lakh doses that are in the pipeline for the state reach it. Bihar is in a similar situation with 2.6 lakh doses remaining against a daily average vaccination of 1.7 lakh. Of the large states, Tamil Nadu seems to be most comfortably placed with stocks of nearly 17 lakh doses — and that’s because its average vaccination level in the last week has been a very low 37,000. Most of the other states with weeks of stocks are the smaller ones and Union territories.

Footfalls at tourist spots along East Coast Road including at the world heritage monuments in Mamallapuram have dropped after the recent spike in Covid-19 cases. The number of tourists including from the city and the rest of TN as well as from neighbouring states has dropped by 40% compared with the figures in the last week of March. While the footfalls fell from nearly 1,000 a day to 600 a day during weekdays, it fell from 4,500-6,000 on weekends in February to 2,800-3,000 now. The boathouse at Muutukadu, maintained by the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC), has also reported a substantial drop in visitors.

Active cases in Tamil Nadu crossed the 30,000 mark on Thursday with the state recording 4,276 new cases and 19 deaths. The state’s Covid cases tally reached 9.15 lakh and the cumulative death toll stood at 12,840. Public health officials said the number of active cases in the state doubled from 5,149 on March 15 to 10, 487 on March 25. In the next nine days, on April 3, there were 20,204 active cases.

As cases continue to increase, hospitals in high incidence districts are filling up quickly. While people will have access to a number of beds in private hospitals through the health department webpage, screening centres at various PHCs and emergency units in hospital will triage patient and send them to covid care centres, health centres or government medical college hospitals for primary, secondary and tertiary care. This will

While fever camps will be held across the state, corporations and local bodies will hold doorto-door surveillance in containment areas. A building with three households and a street with three houses will be declared a containment area in cities. Health authorities have been asked to track down at least 30 contacts of positive cases within 72 hrs. Those violating home isolation will be moved to Covid care centres. The state will also fine people sans masks or those who fail to maintain social distancing. Health officials, police and revenue officials can levy penalties on violations under the TN Public Health Act.

After vaccinating about 1.2 lakh people a day, the recipient numbers in TN came down drastically in the last one week as most health workers were posted as polling staff. The state is targeting 3 lakh vaccinations – first and second dose included – a day across the state. The state has so far received 54.85 lakh doses of vaccines, with a stock of nearly 17 lakh doses.

Early identification of positive cases with aggressive testing will aid early isolation, treatment and prevent transmission and deaths. The state’s new target is to reduce the test positivity rate below 5 in all high incidence districts and below 1 in low incidence districts. On an average the state now tests 85,000 people, which will go up to a lakh in 10 days.

The core committee for prevention and management of Covid-19 headed by chief secretary Rajeev Ranjan ruled out chances of a complete lockdown in Tamil Nadu, but planned scaling down of indoor non-essential activities. On Thursday, health secretary J Radhakrishnan, in an interview to TOI, said the directorate of public health has worked out four strategies to aggressively rein in the pandemic curve in Tamil Nadu.