Tamil Nadu Covid Lockdown: Curbs in 11 hotspots till June 14; relaxations eased in other districts from today
Premium- Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday announced extension of lockdown by one more week till June 14 to combat COVID-19.
Tamil Nadu government on Saturday had announced that the Covid lockdown in the state would be extended by one more week till 14 June with certain relaxations. However, even though the spread of coronavirus has come under control in the southern state, it continued to be on the rise in 11 districts due to which such regions would have lesser relaxations and the rest of the state, relatively more.
The 11 districts are Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Tiruppur, Erode, Salem, Karur, Namakkal, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai. Though, the government has eased restrictions in most of the districts including the state capital Chennai.
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Relaxations
-By relaxing the curbs in other districts, the Tamil Nadu government has allowed sales of vegetables, fish, fruits between 6 am and 5 pm.
-Across the state, standalone provision stores, vegetable shops, meat and fish stalls, pavement hawkers selling flowers besides other things would be allowed to function from 6 AM to 5 PM and fish markets and slaughter houses shall be open only for wholesale trade.
-Government offices shall resume work with 30% employees and Sub Registrar's office shall limit registration work by issuing 'tokens' only upto 50% and matchwork industries could operate with 50% workers.
-E- pass from district administration is necessary to travel (for emergency purposes) to hillstations of Nilgiris, Kodaikanal, Yercaud and the tourist destination of Courtallam.
-Barring the 11 districts, in other regions, routine housekeeping and maintenance work in offices and residences would be allowed and workers including electricians and plumbers shall be permitted to work between 6 AM and 5 PM, albeit after getting e-pass following registration.
-In taxis and autorickshaws, three and two passengers respectively would be permitted and they could travel with 'e-pass.'
-Export units in cities such as Coimbatore, Tirupur, Salem, Karur and Erode and raw material manufacturing firms could work with 10% of workers.
-All the fresh relaxations would come into effect on June 7 and permitted activities should be done by following COVID-19 protocol.
-Takeaway services in restaurants would continue to be offered.
From April, following a steep rise in virus cases, restrictions were imposed one after the other which includes closure of places of worship. After logging over 36,000 cases last month, the fresh infections subsequently began to witness a decline in the state.
Tamil Nadu continued to maintain its declining trend in daily COVID-19 cases, registering 20,421 infections on Sunday, pushing the aggregate to 22.37 lakh. Among districts, Coimbatore recorded the maximum number of cases at 2,645 followed by Chennai with 1,644, Erode 1,694, Salem 1,071 and Tiruppur 1,068.
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