The Tamil Nadu government on Friday ordered people to wear face masks at crowded places amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in some of the states. In its order, the Tamil Nadu Health Department stated that people found that if anyone is caught without mask at public places, he/she will have to pay Rs 500 as fine.
The order comes as Tamil Nadu on April 21 logged 39 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the caseload to 34,53,390. The death toll in the southern state remained 38,025 as no patient succumbed to the deadly virus.
As the state continued to witness an increasing trend., the Tamil Nadu administration asked the health department to increasing the testing of samples to around 25,000 a day.
Chennai has been registering coronavirus cases below 20 over the last few days, on Thursday accounted for the majority of new infections with 21 cases.
Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan urged people of Tamil Nadu not to lower their guard and show laxity in following Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.
“It has been decided to increase the total number of samples that were tested by the health department per day. It was 16,000 (16,583) yesterday, today it will be 18,000 (18,825).. we have directed department authorities to increase the total number of samples collected per day to 25,000”, he said.
In view of spike in COVID-19 cases in some parts of the country, the Punjab government has also advised people to wear masks again at public places, including in buses, trains, aircraft, taxis cinema halls, shopping malls, departmental stores, classrooms, office and indoor gatherings.