Covid-19: This metro city makes wearing of mask mandatory from today. Details here

The Greater Chennai Corporation on Tuesday announced that it will make it mandatory for the residents of Chennai to wear masks from today as the number of Covid-19 cases are showing an upward trend in the city. Chennai leads among districts with 6,946 active infections and overall 7,66,726 coronavirus cases.

A fine of ₹500 will also be levied on the violators who will not follow the guidelines of wearing masks. The Chennai Corporation in a press release on Tuesday stated that,"For the past two weeks, there has been a slight surge in COVID-19 cases in Chennai. We are requesting the public to wear masks in public places like theatres and malls. From tomorrow onwards, a fine of ₹500 will be levied on those who are not wearing masks in public places."

A team comprising of health inspectors has been formed to monitor whether people adhere to covid-19 appropriate behaviour in public places, an official release from the Corporation said.

It appealed to commercial establishments that employees followed covid-19 protocols and ensure customers also adhere to them.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written a letter to States/UTs and directed them to ramp up RT-PCR testing, surveillance, clinical management, vaccination, COVID-19 protocols and take timely pre-emptive actions.

Meanwhile, the health department said on Tuesday that Covid-19 infections in Tamil Nadu continued to surge as 2,662 people including four returnees from overseas tested positive in the last 24 hours, pushing the caseload to 34,88,091 till date. State capital Chennai topped the list with 1,060 new infections followed by Chengalpet 373, Coimbatore 137, Tiruvallur 132, Tiruchirappalli 112 while the remaining was spread across districts. Tirupathur recorded the least with three new cases in the last 24 hours.

The number of total deaths rose to 38,027 when a 77-year-old woman who had tested positive for the virus and had comorbidities, breathed her last due to respiratory failure at a government hospital in the city, a medical bulletin said here. The last fatality due to covid-19 in the state was recorded on June 15, after a gap of 90 days then.

The number of those who recuperated from the virus grew to 34,33,299 with 1,512 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, leaving 16,765 active infections.