Tamil Nadu extends COVID-19 lockdown till 6 am on June 7

Tamil Nadu on Friday extended the COVID-19 lockdown in state till 6 am on June 7.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu has extended its existing full lockdown until the June 7 which was to end at 6am May 31. As per the existing guidelines, vegetables, eggs and fruits would be sold via pushcarts or trucks by the respective civic bodies across all districts, including Chennai. 

While grocery shops will continue to remain closed, relaxations have been provided for neighborhood shops to sell their goods via pushcarts or vehicles, with the Civic body’s permission. They will also be permitted to home-deliver the grocery between 7am and 6pm, based on online orders or on orders placed via phone calls. 

To cater to the needs of the economically weaker sections, a bundle of 13 grocery items would be provided to Rice Card holders, via the public distribution system from June onwards. No additional relaxations have been provided. 

As per the existing guidelines, essentials such as milk, drinking water, newspapers will be available. Allopathy and traditional medicine shops will remain open. E-Commerce services can operate between 8am and 6pm.

Transport of Agricultural goods and produce, movement of essential goods, other cargo will be permitted. Hotels will function and provide only takeaway service between 6-10am, 12noon-3pm and 6-9pm, during which the Online food delivery services can also function. 

Fuel stations, ATMs, Media industry, and Continuous process industries, Industries manufacturing essential commodities, medical equipment can continue to function. Only the essential department in the Secretariat and District Administration will function. For emergencies such as death or medical reasons, Inter-district travel will be permitted based on E-registration 

Tamil Nadu has been under lockdown from the 8th of May, which was the second day of the newly sworn-in DMK government. Since then, with the rise in cases, the lockdown was intensified further. 

Currently, Tamil Nadu is reporting nearly 34,000 Covid-19 cases everyday, whereas the daily recoveries are around 30,000. Daily deaths being reported are over 450 for the past few days and so far, over 22,000 persons have lost their lives to the pandemic. Active cases in the state are over 3.10lakh. While the cases in capital city Chennai has come down from nearly 7,000 to 2,800, is it the second largest district Coimbatore that is seeing a spike. Coimbatore, the Western district is now witnessing over 4,700 daily cases.