Coronavirus outbreak: Tamil Nadu cancels nod for socio-political, religious events

Chennai, Nov 12: The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday cancelled its order allowing social, political, religious and cultural events from November 16 permitting participation of a maximum of 100 people.

Citing festival season and people congregating in large numbers in public places throwing anti-COVID-19 norms like social distancing to winds, the government said curbs shall continue as regards such programmes and it includes those related to entertainment and education.

It has come to the government's notice that people gathered in large numbers in public places like markets, and they thronged bus terminals, "without paying attention to social distancing and wearing masks," an official release said.

Though the spread of the virus has been controlled in Tamil Nadu due to a slew of measures, when a possibility of a second wave of the pandemic could be seen in some foreign countries, it has become imperative to intensify curbs, the government said. In view of the Deepavali festival on November 14, markets and shopping hubs like T Nagar here are teeming with people.

The government had on October 31 said that social, political, religious and cultural events would be allowed from November 16, and permitted participation of a maximum of 100 people by adhering to measures like social distancing.

The government had recently prohibited the 'Vel' or 'Vetrivel yatra' of the BJP, originally scheduled from November 6 to December 6, due to the pandemic and Saffron party leaders courted arrest in multiple locations seeking to take out the yatra despite the ban.

As on November 11, a total of 7,50,409 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu out of which 7,20,339 recovered. While 18,655 was the number of active cases, the death toll stood at 11,415.