Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has announced a complete lockdown in Chennai and certain areas under it, including areas in Thiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu districts from June 19 to 30.
Only the working of hospitals, laboratory and pharmacies will be allowed. No taxis, autos and private transport will be allowed to run except for emergencies. People will have to buy essential items from within a 2 km radius.
Essential services including shops selling milk, vegetables and fruits, mobile outlets, groceries will be open. Petrol pumps will be allowed to run between 6 am and 4 pm. Takeaways from restaurants will be allowed between 6 am and 8 pm.
The announcement came as the state continues to struggle with the rising number of COVID-19 cases.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi today assured that there will be coronavirus testing for all in Delhi during an all-party meeting to discuss the management of the coronavirus situation in the National Capital Region, which includes Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh and parts of Haryana.
The coronavirus tests per day in Delhi will reach 18,000 in the next few days, the Home Minister said. Most parties, cutting across party lines, had demanded more testing.
Delhi is the state with the third-highest COVID-19 count after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The capital's tally of coronavirus infections has touched 41,182 as the number of deaths due to the disease climbed to 1,327.
Today's meeting comes a day after he held a high-level meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, following which he laid out a number of measures to battle the capital's COVID-19 crisis.
The parties that attended the meeting at the North Block included Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress, BJP, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party and Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party.
India on Monday recorded 11,502 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the total number of cases to 3,32,424, data from the Union Health Ministry this morning shows. The death count rose to 9,520 with 325 fatalities in the last one day. Of the total cases in the country, Maharashtra tops the tally with 1,07,958 cases, followed by Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Gujarat.
India's recovery rate - the number of patients who have successfully fought the viral illness - stood at 51.07 per cent this morning. 1,69,798 people have recovered, the Health Ministry has said.
