Tamil Nadu: 12-day ‘strict’ coronavirus lockdown begins in Chennai, arterial roads closed

Struggling with over 38,000 COVID-19 positive cases, this metropolis on Friday began observing a 12-day ‘strict’ lockdown with authorities hoping against hope that the new restrictions would help reduce the city’s heavy caseload.

The lockdown was announced on Monday by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami after an expert committee of doctors suggested tightening the restrictions imposed in the city to contain the coronavirus. The 12-day lockdown is similar to the first two phases of the nation-wide lockdown during which only essential services were allowed to function.

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At last count on Friday evening, Chennai’s individual COVID-19 tally was 38,327, even as the government said it has tested 2.10 lakh people in the city so far. The city has 16,699 active cases and accounts for 529 of the total 666 COVID-19 deaths in Tamil Nadu.

To ensure that the lockdown is implemented on the ground, the Chennai Police has set up checkpoints at 288 places across this metropolis to check the movement of people. While air services and limited train services are exempted from the lockdown, there is a blanket ban on using private transport even for buying groceries.

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Police were seeing stop vehicles, including two-wheelers, that were plying on the road on Friday and asked those driving or riding them to show necessary documents for their travel. Sources said people who stepped out of their homes without any “urgent need” were booked and their vehicles were impounded.

The lockdown seemed effective on the first day as majority of the roads look deserted with only policemen standing guard. The city police also took the help of drones to monitor movements of people by fitting cameras to the devices.

That the city police were unwilling to take chances this time was evident from its decision to close the arterial Anna Salai and a few other key routes to prevent people from stepping out of their homes. Only shops that sell groceries and vegetables and filling stations were allowed to function till 2 pm, while skeletal bus services were run for the movement of conservancy and health care workers.

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Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) Commissioner G Prakash appealed to people not to hide their health status or symptoms to health workers who will visit them during the lockdown period.

Experts said the lockdown will have an effect only if the administration makes use of the 12-day period to identify symptomatic people, isolate them, test them, and subsequently test their contacts if their swab samples return positive.

“Chennai Lock Down will be effective if there is aggressive testing of people with symptoms & contacts of #COVID19, early isolation of #COVID19 and compliance to masks/social distancing - report to doctor if you have fever/cough/sore throat/breathlessness,” Dr Prabhdeep Kaur, deputy director of the National Institute of Epidemiology, said.