Penalise those flouting Covid protocols, CS tells officials

Penalise those flouting Covid protocols, CS tells officials

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

17.03.2021 

Tamil Nadu chief secretary Rajeev Ranjan on Tuesday directed local bodies, health and revenue departments and police to ensure people wore masks and institutions adhered to standard operating procedures. He asked them to impose fine on violators under the Public Health Act.

The chief secretary held a review meeting with district administrators and the heads of departments via video conferencing following a spike in Covid-19 cases in recent days.

“Permission should be granted for election rallies, cultural, religious and other events where the public gather in huge numbers with a condition that wearing masks is mandatory. The departments concerned should have to ensure that,” Ranjan said. District collectors should focus on Covid-19 preventive activities, an important part of election work, and take all measures to reduce transmission.

The state has recorded a positivity rate of 1.2% in the last 10 days. Positivity rate is more than 2% in Chennai and Coimbatore. Tiruvallur, Tirupur, Kancheepuram, Thanjavur and Nagapattinam districts have seen more than 1%.

Ranjan gave directions to administrators to take appropriate disease control measures by deploying personnel in Covid-19 cluster areas. “Fever camps must be increased, identify the cases and offer treatment,” the chief secretary said.

Close contacts of the infected people must be isolated and tested and infected should be given treatment without any delay, Ranjan said. Efforts should be taken to vaccinate the eligible people and special attention should be paid to areas where cases are high.