Government in favour of phased relaxation of curbs

Government in favour of phased relaxation of curbs

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 05.06.2021 

After a two-week long intense lockdown in the state to bring the surge in Covid-19 cases under control, the Tamil Nadu government is mulling over phased unlocking, with measured relaxations. The state is considering the suggestions of health experts that relaxations could be introduced in the districts that have brought the pandemic under control.

Chief minister M K Stalin on Friday held a meeting with bureaucrats to take stock of the prevailing situation. As of now, only those shops selling essential commodities are allowed to function.

“District-wise analysis was done on the total positivity rate and the availability of health infrastructure to handle the situation. Health and revenue departments are jointly working on the relaxations and a call will be taken on Friday night and an announcement will be made on Saturday morning,” said a top official.

The government also took note of Chennai's sharp declining trend from 7,564 daily cases on May 12 to 1,971 on June 4 after a series of intense interventions by the administrative machinery, including adequate supply of oxygen. The availability of oxygen beds also increased considerably across the state.

While the active cases have fallen to 2.68 lakh as of Friday, the high number of cases in Coimbatore, Chennai, Tiruppur, Erode, Madurai, Trichy, and Salem remain a cause of concern. “Most of the districts have reached a peak and have started to decline while some have reached the peak only in the recent days and the declining rate is not as fast as we expected. Each district or region behaves in a certain way. Not all are uniform. We are looking at various factors before taking a call,” a senior official said, hinting at the possibility of grouping of districts that behave in a similar pattern. The state witnessed its highest number of active cases (3.13 lakh) on May 27, keeping the administration on toes resulting in intense lockdown being extended for a week ending June 7.

Tamil Nadu is mulling relaxations in districts that have brought the pandemic under control