TN lockdown till June 7, delivery by shops allowed

Extending the total lockdown in force now, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin announced that groceries would be allowed to be sold through mobile vends by the local shops that could also deliver things at the doorstep of customers, taking orders either online or over telephone.

The present lockdown, imposed from May 17 to 24, would continue till June 7 with all the existing restrictions, the Chief Minister said in a statement on Friday, adding that the decision was taken after reviewing the spread of Coronavirus in the various districts.

Stalin ordered the departments concerned to provide a compendium of select 13 condiments to all family cardholders from June 1 as an additional benefit and urged the people not to step out of their homes with a view to curbing the spread of Coronavirus.

Restaurants would continue to provide takeaway services and though ecommerce deliveries as it has been all through the long period of lockdown that was first brought in on March 25, 2020 when the first wave of Covid started wreaking havoc all over the country.

Since then the state has been seeing several relaxations and restrictions being announced from time to time depending on the situation. Though life was seemingly returning to normal towards the end of 2020, the second wave of the pandemic struck with such a severity that many restrictions were re-introduced from the first week of May. Prior to the imposition of the present stringent norms, grocery, vegetable, meat, fish and chicken shops were allowed to be open till 10 am, while all other businesses were closed down, apart from those industries and trades that had been enjoying exemption from the lockdown.

However, from May 17 even grocery, vegetable, meat, fish and chicken shops were closed down and only vegetables were made available through mobile vends after the people had a free run on the preceding Saturday and Sunday when all shops were opened up to enable them stock up whatever they could.