With Tamil Nadu witnessing a sharp increase in the covid-19 cases, the government on Saturday announced a complete lockdown in the state for two weeks amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. The lockdown will begin from May 10 and continue till May 24.
Chief Minister M K Stalin said in a statement that the lockdown was being enforced due to "unavoidable reasons" and pointed out that the decision was taken based on inputs received at a review meeting he had with district collectors on Friday, besides consultations with medical experts.
"The total lockdown will be enforced from 4 am on May 10 to 4 am on May 24," he said.
During the 14-day complete lockdown in Tamil Nadu, only essential services be allowed to operate.
From May 10, vegetable, meat and fish shops and provisional stores will remain open only till 12 noon. All other shops will remain closed. State-owned liquor shops, Tasmac will be closed during the 14-day complete lockdown in Tamil Nadu.
Restaurants will be allowed to open only for takeaway services. Petrol and diesel bunks will remain open during the lockdown.
Tamil Nadu saw 26,465 new coronavirus cases on Friday, pushing the caseload to 13.23 lakh while a record 197 deaths in the last 24 hours took the toll to 15,171. According to the health department, the active cases stood at 1,35,355. Tamil Nadu is among the 12 states that have over one lakh active COVID-19 cases each at present, according to the central government.
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