The Tamil Nadu government on Monday extended the ongoing Covid 19- induced lockdown restrictions in the state till September 15. According to the new guidelines, all religious places will remain closed from Friday to Sunday. Entry to the beaches will be prohibited on Sundays. However, the classes for standard 9th to 12th and colleges will resume as scheduled from 1st September.
The state government had earlier issued guidelines on making negative RT-PCR certificates taken 72 hours within the journey or two-dose fully vaccinated certificates compulsory for those coming into the state from Kerala, which has recorded 50% of the total cases in India for the past few days.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister M K Stalin at the Secretariat, which would be in effect till 06.00 am of September 15, an official release said.
"For the benefit of the public and to contain the spread of the virus, beaches will be closed on Sundays while the ban to visit places of worship on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays will continue. Holding of religious festivals also banned," the release said.
The decision to ban entry of people to beaches on Sundays follows pictures of huge crowds which went viral in social media, with people not adhering to any Covid-19 protocols, posing a greater risk to virus spread.
With the government deciding to ban religious festivals, Ganesh Chaturthi scheduled to be celebrated on September 10 is expected to be a low key affair, similar to last year.
Meanwhile, the government directed district administrations to take 'appropriate measures' based on the prevalence of the virus in their respective districts.
(With inputs from agencies)
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