Chief minister K. Palaniswami on Monday announced extension of lockdown in Tamil Nadu till April 30 and said the move was in accordance with the recommendations of medical and public health experts.
Palaniswami, pointing out that he favoured prolonging the curbs till the end of this month in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi held on Saturday, said several other state chief ministers too batted for extending the restrictions.
Based on the deliberations in a meeting with the Prime Minister and in tune with the recommendations of an expert committee, public health experts and the World Health Organisation, and as per a cabinet decision, the 'lockdown is extended till April 30 as per CrPc and the Disaster Management Act 2005.'
On Saturday, the Opposition DMK in Tamil Nadu on Saturday urged the state government to take a cue from Punjab and Odisha and extend the ongoing lockdown enforced in the state to stem the spread of coronavirus till April-end.
Stalin wrote a letter to Palaniswami, where he wanted the lockdown to be extended beyond April 14.
On Friday, a 19-member expert committee constituted by the state government to advise it of steps to tackle the Covid-19 crisis had recommended that the lockdown be extended by two weeks beyond April 14 considering the rise in number of cases. Tamil Nadu has so far reported 911 positive cases.
