The ongoing lockdown in Madurai district to battle the spread of COVID-19 has been extended by another two days and will now be lifted at midnight on July 14. This decision is to aid the ongoing efforts to control the rising number of infections in the district.
Once the complete lockdown is lifted, Madurai will still continue to face the restriction that it had in place before June 24.
Madurai continues to see a high number of cases, with 277 reported on Saturday alone. The district has a total of 5,757 cases of which 5,353 are indeginous and 127 are imported. The district has seen 10 deaths and 553 discharges since March. Meanwhile, 3,843 persons are undergoing treatment at their own residences.
In a press release, the Tamil Nadu government stated that the rate of infection in the district had been brought down through checking and treating persons in fever clinics and conducting house surveys. And this extended lockdown was meant to intensify the effort.
On July 4, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami announced a strict lockdown in Madurai city and surrounding areas till July 12. This was announced a day before the previous deadline for the complete lockdown was set.
On Saturday, Tamil Nadu saw 3,965 cases of COVID-19 in the state with 69 people succumbing to the virus. The total number of persons who have tested positive for the virus till date is 1,34,226. Of this, the total number of active cases are 46,410. Meanwhile 85,915 people have been discharged so far in the state.
In Chennai, the number of infections has settled at around 1,200 over the last week. Madurai however, continues to see a sharp rise.
The reason for this, according to reports, is the exodus of people from Chennai ahead of the recently concluded lockdown. Several people used the time ahead of the lockdown to leave to their hometowns, inadvertently carrying the virus with them.
The Health department is now planning to put into force the strategy adopted in Chennai in other districts where cases are rising. They plan to monitor cases at a micro-level, going street to street to prevent the spread.