Tamil Nadu: HC orders local bodies to conduct sanitization drive to contain COVID spread

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the Madras High Court directed all local bodies in Tamil Nadu to conduct a massive sanitization drive to keep the virus in check. On Thursday, a bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said that an advisory should be issued to all local bodies so that villages and small towns can be "saved" from the novel coronavirus spread in the urban areas. In another matter, the bench asked the Additional Solicitor General to explore the possibility of ESI hospitals being equipped with facilities to handle COVID-19 patients at the earliest.

However, it rejected the prayer to allow general COVID-19 patients to avail treatment at Railways and Port hospitals, citing that they are reserved solely for the Railways and Port employees. At present, there are 1,95,339 active novel coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu while 13,18,982 patients have recovered and 17,056 deaths have been reported. While a total of 51,27,382 persons have been inoculated in TN till now, 18,85,281 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too. 

Here are the COVID-19 curbs in TN:

• Grocery shops, vegetable shops, fish and meat shops will be allowed to open only between 6-10 am. Tea shops will not be allowed
• Roadside shops selling vegetables, flowers and fruits will not be permitted
• All other commercial establishments will be shut
• Fish and meat stalls should be shifted to spacious spaces to avoid crowding
• Online ordering and delivery and e-commerce firms services have been allowed to operate between 6 am to 10 am 
• E-registration is mandatory for inter-district and intra-district movement including for essential purposes, weddings and funerals from May 17 onwards
• E-registration for those coming from other states and abroad to Tamil Nadu is mandatory
• People should buy essential items only in their neighbourhood and should not travel to away places
• The Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited (TASMAC) shops will remain closed 
• All non-essential services in the state department will remain shut. The Secretariat, health, revenue, disaster management, police, fire service, prison departments, local administration, EB, PWD, social welfare, forests department will function
• Restrictions on cinemas, multiplexes, theatres, gyms, recreation clubs, bars, auditoriums, meeting halls, and other similar places shall continue
• Night curfew from 10 pm to 4 am and Sunday lockdown restrictions will continue