Nursery and play schools would reopen on February 16 in Tamil Nadu, the government announced on Saturday, February 12, after Chief Minister MK Stalin chaired a high level meeting to review the coronavirus situation in the state. While children of nursery classes would be going to school again after a gap of nearly two years, exhibitions are also allowed now and with such fresh relaxations, almost all other COVID-19 related restrictions have been lifted.
As per a fresh notification on curbs applicable from February 16 to March 2, upto 200 people could participate in marriage and related ceremonies. When it comes to funerals, 100 people may take part. The ban for congregations related to social, cultural and political events would, however, continue to be in place, an official release said. In the meeting chaired by the Chief Minister at the Secretariat, Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu and other senior state officials participated.
Physical classes commenced on February 1 for school children from grades 1 to 12 and college students as well.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu on Friday, February 11, added 3,086 new COVID-19 infections, pushing the caseload to 34,31,154 while 25 more fatalities took the death toll to 37,887, the health department said. Recoveries outnumbered new cases with 14,051 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, leaving 56,002 active infections, a medical bulletin said.
Chennai and Coimbatore accounted for the majority of new infections with 590 and 569 cases respectively while the remaining was spread across other districts. Perambalur and Tenkasi recorded the least with five cases each. A total of 1,06,514 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.
The 25 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours included a 15-year old boy from Karur who succumbed to the contagion in a private hospital in Tiruchirappalli. The teenager with complaints of fever for 25 days who was positive for coronavirus was admitted to a hospital on February 8. He died on February 10 due to COVID-19 pneumonia, the bulletin said.