Lockdown in TN extended till June 30: State divided into 8 zones for phased relaxations
Chennai: TN CM Edappadi K Palanisamy in a press release has said that the general lockdown in TN will be extended till June 30. The Tamil Nadu government has allowed partial relaxations in parts of the state with less infection concentrates.
Lockdown restrictions will continue to be implemented in:
- Religious places and religious gatherings
- Tourism in Nilgiris, Kodaikanal and Yercaud
- Lodging and resorts except for medical industry, police and other state members who have been isolated.
- Shopping malls
- Schools, institutions, academies and research institutes.
- All international airline services with the exception of services allowed by the Ministry of Internal affairs
- Metro rails
- Cinema halls, gyms, swimming pool, entertainment zones, bar, auditoriums, beaches, tourist places, zoo, exhibitions
- All gathering including social, political, religious, entertainment, cultural and educational events
- For funerals, 20 persons are allowed to participate, for weddings 50 members are allowed to participate.
Tamilnadu has been split into 8 zones
Zone 1 - Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Erode, Tirupur, Karur, Salem and Namakkal
Zone 2- Dharmapuri, Velur, Thiruppathur, Panipettai, Krishnagiri.
Zone 3- Viluppuram, Thiruvannamalai, Cuddalore and Kaalakurichi
Zone 4- Nagapattinam, thiruvarur, Thanjavur, Trichy, Ariyalur, Perambalur, and Pudukkottai.
Zone 5 - Dindigul, Madurai, Theni, Viudunagar, Sivagangai and Ramanathapuram
Zone 6 - Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Tenkasi
Zone 7 - Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu
Zone 8 - Chennai city police limits
Public Inter-state & Intra-state transport
- The state has been divided into 8 zones, the public transport will begin in all zones except zone 7 and zone 8 which includes Kanchipuram, Thiruvallur, Chengalpattu in zone 7 and Chennai in zone 8 with 50% of buses
- Private buses will ply in allowed zones, only 60% of seats should be occupied in all buses, e-pass is not required for people travelling within zones, travel between zones and states will be prohibited.
- For vehicles, movement within zones do not require E-pass but to travel between (to other) zones and states, the e-pass method will be continued.
Relaxations in TN outside of Chennai City police limits:
Except for containment zones and Chennai city limits, the following operations are allowed in from 1-06-2020
- IT and IT affiliated companies can work with 20% of employees, a maximum of 40 members
- All private companies with 50% of employees
- Showrooms except those in malls can operate with 50% employees with no air conditioning with 5 customers at a time
- Restaurants can begin dine-in with 50% seating capacity. Air conditioning should not be used.
- Grocery shops can operate from 6 am - 8 pm.
- Taxi service with driver and maximum 3 passengers can operate within the zone without e-pass
- Auto with two passengers
- Salons with prescribed safety measures
- Industries can operate with 100%employees
- Telecommunication IT services can operate with 100% employees but must encourage 20% of employees working from home.
- Non-essentials items can be delivered by e-commerce sites.
General 144 restrictions
- 144 curfew will be followed where more than 5 people cannot gather
- No relaxations in containment zones
- Companies must encourage working from home and safety precautions must be followed in companies.
- Rules by resident associations in specific areas must be followed for maids and vendors.
The TN government has announced that further relaxations will be based on the infection rates in specific zones.