In a bid to curtail the spread of the Coronavirus, the Tamil Nadu government on Sunday announced restrictions from April 20 including a night curfew between 10 pm and 4 am over the weekdays and a complete lockdown on Sundays. After a review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, the government on April 18 announced numerous restrictions to keep the virus from spreading further.
Apart from restrictions for public places, movement of people, school and colleges will also have to adhere to specific guidelines. The government postponed Class 12 State Board examinations, without specifying a date while allowing practical examinations to proceed as scheduled. The restrictions are likely to be reviewed on April 30. Originally, the government had planned to hold Class 12 examinations from May 3 to May 21, 2021.
Colleges, universities have been directed to conduct classes through the online mode and examinations should also be held only online. The government has also banned all summer camps in the state.
The state government earlier had already ordered the closure of schools for Classes 9, 10 and 11 from March 22 indefinitely. However, the schools were functioning for Class 12 students because of the upcoming board exams. Notifying the closure in March, the government had said the director of public health and preventive medicine has recommended that it would not be advisable to continue Classes for 9, 10 and 11 from the health point of view as there has been a rise in COVID-19 cases. However, then for students of Class 12, it was necessary to attend school for the board exams. But now that the exams have been postponed until further orders, the students will only know about their next step at the end of April.
Tamil Nadu had last year implemented Sunday lockdowns and the government reintroducing the restriction came on April 18 when COVID-19 cases crossed the 10,000 mark for the first time during the ongoing second wave of the pandemic across the country.
