Virudhunagar district administration has instructed local bodies, police, revenue and health officials to strictly implement the rule of wearing masks mandatory for people coming out of their homes.
Those who violate the rule will be imposed a fine of ₹200.
Imposing of penalty on the violators has already begun. “Similarly, bus operators have been instructed not to allow any passenger to board buses without masks,” Virudhunagar Collector, R. Kannan, said. The Collector chaired a meeting of officials on implementation of standard operating procedures in the wake of second wave of COVID-19 infection, held here on Friday.
Officials have asked all temples not to hold any temple festivals till April 30. “Worshipping could be allowed in temples with 50% capacity. However, festivals would not be allowed to prevent crowding,” he added.
Meanwhile, an official said that organisers of several temples in the district have come with request for exemption for conducting Panguni festival.
“The organisers claimed that they had postponed their festivals after the polling day as the district administration’s advice. They could not conduct the festival even last year due to COVID-19 outbreak,” he added.
Meanwhile, as the officials were expecting the numbers of positive patients to surge in the next one week, all government hospitals and Block Primary Health Centres have been asked to open the COVID-19 isolation wards. Similarly, efforts have been taken to revive all the eight Covid Care Centres in the district.
Meanwhile, a cluster of four positive persons has been detected in Veeracholan. “We have set up a containment zone and barricading has been done to prevent people from the containment zone to come out,” Mr. Kannan said.
The Collector said that adequate quantity of medicines, personal protection kits were available in the district. Fresh intend for RT-PCR kits have been sent.
Meanwhile, Virudhunagar district recorded 23 fresh positive cases on Friday with only six patients getting discharged from hospitals. The number of active cases has increased to 131.
