Mask now a must in Tamil Nadu or pay Rs 500 fine

Tamil Nadu health department on Friday made wearing facemasks in public mandatory as a preventive step to control the surge of Covid-19 cases. Anybody found without a facemask will have to pay a penalty of Rs 500. Tamil Nadu reported a total of  39 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the caseload to 34,53,390 as the state continued to witness an increasing trend. The toll remained 38,025 with zero fatalities being recorded in the last 24 hours, a medical bulletin said.

Taking cognizance of the rise in new cases, the government directed the health department to step up testing of samples to around 25,000 a day from the present 18,000 cases. After visiting the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said 12 people at the campus have tested COVID-19 positive. Meanwhile, COVID-19 recoveries grew to 34.15 lakh with 26 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, leaving 256 active infections. Chennai, which has been reporting cases below 20 over the last few days accounted for the majority of new coronavirus with 21 cases, followed by Chengalpet six, while Vellore and Thanjavur recorded two cases, respectively. Kancheepuram, Nagapattinam, Namakkal, Tirupathur, Tiruvallur, Tiruvarur reported one case each.