Amid surging COVID-19 cases, the Tamil Nadu government on Monday, January 10 extended the existing COVID restrictions till January 31, imposing fresh curbs restricting entry into religious places of worship from January 14 to 18, to contain the spread of coronavirus. Night curfew, which was imposed from January 6, will continue till the end of January, and there will be complete lockdown on January 16 (Sunday), the government said.
A decision to further extend the COVID-19 curbs that was extended on December 31, 2021, was made at a meeting of senior officials and medical experts chaired by Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday, January 10. In view of the mid-January Pongal (harvest) festival, the government has allowed travel in state-run buses with 75% occupancy to enable the people to reach their native districts. Further, worship in all religious places of worship has been disallowed from January 14 to 18 in a bid to prevent crowding.
Other restrictions pertaining to restaurants' take away service and theatres will continue till this month-end, the release said. The government urged the people to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 at the earliest and also asked the traders and business establishments to provide hand sanitiser and strictly follow the government COVID-19 safety norms.
The number of coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu increased by over 1,000 in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections in a single day to 13,990 while 11 more fatalities took the death toll to 36,866 on Monday, January 10, a health bulletin said. On January 9, the state had recorded 12,895 new coronavirus cases in a single day.
Chennai reported a staggering 6,190 fresh coronavirus cases, the highest in the state followed by Chengalpattu with 1,696 and Thiruvallur with 1,054 new cases. Mayiladuthurai registered the lowest cases in the state at 13 while Coimbatore and Kancheepuram saw 602 and 508 fresh infections, respectively.
The number of active cases in the state, including isolated patients, stands at 62,767. With four more deaths reported, the death toll has mounted to 8,680.
Meanwhile, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Dr TS Selvavinayagam issued new testing guidelines to prevent and control the spread of coronavirus and its new variant Omicron. Accordingly, all persons with symptoms like fever, cold, cough, myalgia, breathlessness, etc., along with contacts of RT-PCR positive COVID-19 cases should be tested. All other asymptomatic contacts need not be tested.
Patients isolated in COVID care centres or put up in home isolation will stand to be discharged and end isolation after at least seven days from the onset of symptoms or date of sampling and have no fever for three consecutive days, the health official said. Re-testing is not required for discharge from home isolation or the COVID care centres. However, the hospitalised severe cases should be discharged after clinical recovery, he instructed.