Chennai: With Covid-19 cases rising in Tamilnadu once again, wearing masks and following other protocols have been made mandatory in the State. Violations would attract a fine of Rs 500 and special teams have been formed to monitor people.
Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan said, ‘the State withdrew the fine for not wearing masks when the caseload came down. Yet, we insisted that it is required for people to always wear masks when they are in public spaces. But we find people have abandoned them even in crowded closed enclosures. So, we are once again making masks mandatory to prevent rapid transmission of the virus.’ He added district authorities have been asked to enforce Covid appropriate behaviour.
‘We should learn our lessons at least now.’
Meanwhile, hospitals across the State have been asked to keep beds ready for Covid patients. ‘Though there is nothing alarming as of now, we are not ready to take any chance. Hence, hospitals are asked to keep Covid wards ready to handle any situation,’ a senior official said.
Thirty people have tested positive for the coronavirus at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras in the past two days.
Radhakrishnan said that 365 samples from the campus have been tested for the virus till now and that authorities will decide on further steps based on that.
Continuing to report an upward tick in new cases, Tamilnadu on Friday reported 57 coronavirus infections, pushing the overall tally to 34,53,447, the Health department said.
Among those tested positive for the virus, 30 were men and 27 women, while the death toll remained unchanged at 38,025 with zero fatalities in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said.
Recoveries were comparatively low to new cases with 27 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 34,15,136 leaving 286 active cases.