Tamil Nadu: Lockdown Can’t Keep Extending Lockdown, Says CM Stalin; Seeks People Cooperation

Chennai: In view of a constant decline in COVID cases in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday said that the lockdown cannot be continued for a longer time. Stating that the complete lockdown is the only way to arrest the spread of the virus in all respects, Stalin said, the lockdown cannot be extended for a longer period of time.

Expressing his concern over the livelihood of a section of people in the state and seeking people cooperation, Stalin said, the lockdown cannot be extended again and again; we need to put a full stop to it. “But that possibility lies in the hands of people”, Stalin added.

Chief Minister said that the new cases in Chennai which were around 7,000 per day have come down to 2,000 now and within a few days, it could have complete hold. In the western zone including Coimbatore, the infection was high during the last week but it started coming down for the past two days which is the result of the complete lockdown in the state. 

Explaining the quick steps taken by the government to set right the shortage of beds and medical oxygen, Stalin said, “Now, beds are vacant in many hospitals. Per day, three lakh people are being vaccinated and no other state in the country vaccinates at such a speed. Similarly, around 1.70 lakh samples are being tested per day. No other State performs such a large number of tests per day.”

Emphasizing the precautionary measures, Stalin said, “We have to break the chain of spreading the contagious virus. We are facing the second wave of this infection as we have failed to put a full stop to the first wave. We have to come out of the present crisis to implement many welfare schemes in various departments,” CM added.

From May 10, a lockdown was clamped in Tamil Nadu albeit with some easing of curbs. Such relaxations were withdrawn and a complete lockdown was being enforced from May 24 and it would be in force till June 7.