No lockdown extension relaxations in Tamil Nadu till May 3

The Tamil Nadu government has issued a statement on Monday saying that there will be no relaxations across the state on the lockdown extension till May 3. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last week announced that there will be relaxations on the lockdown in certain places in the states across India from April 20 till May 3. However, owing to more number of positive coronavirus cases popping up across the state, the Tamil Nadu government has now decided that there will be no relaxations and will adhere to the strategy implemented in Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab, Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat in order to curb the spread of the fatal disease.

A panel of medical experts submitted a report to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami earlier today in which the findings of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in the state were discussed. Based on the data, it has been decided that the lockdown extension will continue as per earlier norms and there will be no relaxations. In addition, it has been said that the relaxations provided for essential services to function will continue without any changes. The statement further reads that a new report will be submitted in the next few days and the decision to implement relaxations will be considered based on the number of positive coronavirus cases decreasing in the state.

Tamil Nadu has so far recorded 1,477 positive coronavirus cases with 105 people showing symptoms of the disease on Sunday. With one person succumbing to the virus, the death toll across the state has gone up to 16 with 5,480 samples taken yesterday and 40,876 samples taken to date of which 31,853 have tested negative. As of now, 2,411 samples are being tested with health officials revealing 5,135 samples are repeat samples.