In the previous lockdown extension announced on July 10, Tamil Nadu had announced a series of relaxations.
Tamil Nadu has extended its COVID-19-induced lockdown until July 31. However, the lockdown has been relaxed with more activities being permitted by the state government. The government has permitted ITIs, Industrial schools, type writing schools to function with 50% students on a rotational basis. Teachers have also been permitted to come to schools for admissions-related work and distribution of textbooks etc. However, swimming pools, pubs, inter-state buses, any social, political, cultural, sports events, educational institutions and zoos have not yet been allowed to function.
In the previous lockdown extension announced on July 10, Tamil Nadu had announced a series of relaxations. Bakeries, hotels, restaurants and road-side shops were allowed with 50% seating capacity upto 9 pm everyday. Bus services to Puducherry were also restarted. All shops which have been allowed to open should have hand sanitisers and thermal screening equipment such as scanners. Shop and restaurant employees also have to mandatorily wear a mask while working and attending to customers. Air conditioned shops can only function by keeping the windows open.
The state had also removed the e-pass/e-registers room for inter district travel within Tamil Nadu. Marriages can be held with an upper limit of 50 people while only 20 people are permitted to attend funerals. Only essential services will be permitted to operate in containment zones. COVID-19 appropriate behaviour of test-track-treat-vaccination etc will be ensured in these zones.
The state government also allowed competitive exams for state and Union government services to be held with required permissions and by following the SOPs.
The government has not yet permitted international flights to take off from the state, unless they were flight services permitted by the Union government. This will continue until fresh relaxations on July 31.
On Thursday, July 15, Tamil Nadu recorded 2,405 COVID-19 cases out of which Chennai recorded 148 fresh cases. The state also recorded 49 deaths on Thursday. A total of 3,006 patients were discharged after testing negative on the same day.
Source: The News Minute