TN imposes night curfew, Sunday lockdown, puts off Class XII exam

TN imposes night curfew, Sunday lockdown, puts off Class XII exam

Curbs From April 20 Till Further Orders

D.Govardan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:19.04.2021

With the second Covid-19 wave causing record infections, the Tamil Nadu government on Sunday announced fresh restrictions, including night curfew and Sunday lockdowns, across the state from April  20.

While the Class 12 state board exams have been postponed indefinitely, practical exams will be held as per schedule. Colleges and universities will continue to hold online classes and examinations. Summer education camps are banned.

The new set of restrictions would be in force until further orders, said a statement issued after a review meeting with senior officials by chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at his camp office in the city. The CM directed the state industries department to issue temporary licences to TN firms planning to produce oxygen.

The new norms will be in addition to the general Covid-19 restrictions already in force in the state till the end of the month. The Sunday lockdown will not cover May 2 which is the date fixed by the Election Commission of India for counting of votes for the assembly election held on April 6. During night curfew, which will be in force from 10pm to 4am, public and private transport services, autos and cabs and movement of private vehicles will not be permitted

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35% of TN’s 70k active cases from Chennai

Tamil Nadu’s active case count crossed the 70,000-mark on Sunday with the state adding10,723 new infections to its Covid tally. The 42 new deaths pushed the toll to13,113, the third highest in the country. Hotspot Chennai accounted for 35% of TN’s active cases. The city added 3,304 new cases on Sunday. Amid complaints of vaccine shortage, health minister C Vijayabaskar said TN had 8.8 lakh doses as of Sunday morning. Vaccinations took a steep fall on Sunday with just 25,670 people getting their shots compared to more than one lakh on Saturday. P 2

Curbs as active cases up by 50,000 in 20 days

Inter-state and intra-state movement of public and private vehicles will not be allowed. The latest restrictions have been imposed due to the laxity shown by the people in wearing masks and maintaining social distancing norms, that has resulted in active infections increasing to 65,635 on April 17 against 13,070 on March 28 in the state, the release said.

Movement of vehicles for medical emergencies, plying of autos and cabs destined to reach airports and railway stations as well as private transport will be permitted during night curfew. Movement of essential services including milk distribution and newspaper vendors, hospitals, labs, pharmacies, ambulances, commercial goods carriers as well as petroleum and LPG tankers will be allowed. Fuel outlets can remain open throughout the night. Continuous process industries and those manufacturing essential goods will be allowed to function during night curfew.

As for the Sunday curfew, meat shops, fish markets, vegetable shops, cinema theatres, malls and all commercial shops will remain closed. All essential services will be available.

On Sundays, restaurants will be permitted to offer only takeaways and food delivery platforms can function between 6am – 10am, 12-3pm and 6-9pm. Movement of other online platforms deliveries will not be permitted on Sundays.

Weddings, funerals are allowed on Sundays as long as they have a maximum 100 attendees and 50 attendees.

All tourist spots will be outof-bounds the public from April 20. Software and IT companies should ask at least 50% of employees to work from home. All retail outlets, restaurants can work at 50% capacity up to 9pm.

Temples already permitted to conduct festivals and consecrations can go ahead with maximum of 50 people.

Hospitals with required infrastructure can align with hotels to operate Covid care centres. Other guests cannot stay in those hotels.