Night curfew in Tamil Nadu from today, complete lockdown on Sunday amid COVID-19 surge

Chennai: In view of the surge in Covid-19 cases, a night curfew will come into force from 10 pm – 5 am across Tamil Nadu from Thursday while there will be a complete lockdown on all Sundays. This was announced by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin after reviewing the COVID-19 situation in the sate.

No physical classes will be allowed for students of Classes 1 to 9. Creches, kindergarten classes, and playschools will not be allowed to function, the Chief Minister`s Office said in a statement.

However, physical classes for students of classes 10th, 11th, and 12th will be allowed.

What will be exempted in TN?

During the complete lockdown on Sunday, essential services like medical shops, distribution of milk, newspapers, fuel pumps, ATM, freight transport will be allowed. E-commerce services will not be allowed during lockdown while restaurants will be allowed to provide food delivery services and takeaways from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

For reaching the airport, railway and bus stations, people will have to show valid tickets for the journey during night curfew from Thursday and during complete lockdown on Sunday.

Meanwhile, India on Wednesday reported its first death linked to the Omicron coronavirus variant in Rajasthan as new COVID-19 cases crossed 70,000 in what the Centre said was an "exponential rise" with the acceleration "steeper than ever" reflected by a higher R naught value than during the peak of the brutal second wave.

As Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh joined a growing list of states to clamp night curfew in line with fresh curbs to deal with the expanding pandemic, the Centre said the upsurge in COVID cases -a 6.3 times rise in the last eight days -is happening in cities and the Omicron variant is the predominant circulating strain.

A total of 2,135 cases of the Omicron variant have been detected across 24 states and UTs out of which, 828 have recovered or migrated, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am. Maharashtra recorded the maximum number of 653 followed by Delhi at 464, Kerala 185, Rajasthan 174, Gujarat 154 and Tamil Nadu 121 Omicron cases.