The Tamil Nadu health department has rolled out strict measures at the districts that share the border with the neighbouring state of Kerala as the sequel of peaking Covid-19 cases in the state. Kerala has been steering through the incessant whammies triggered by the rapid spread of the pandemic with the state accounting for 80% of the total cases reported in India. Though being recording the grounds of the exponential rise of cases, the Kerala state government has been pouring major relaxations and it had celebrated the recent Onam festival akin to that of the pre-Covid world. 

The experts have warned that Kerala could write the prefix for the third wave of the pandemic if the current trend continues and said that the state is pushed to encounter the spike in cases after more relaxations. However, the Kerala health department has been affirming that the situation is under control and the government has been unfolding the measures to mitigate the spread. As Kerala is reporting overwhelming cases, its neighbours have been deploying the mechanisms to enhance the monitoring at the border. 

Tamil Nadu shares most of Kerala's border and the health department has ramped up the measures at the borders. According to reports, the officials of the Tamil Nadu Health Department along with the police are monitoring the borders at Kaliyakkavilai near Nagercoil and in Walayar, which shares the border with the Coimbatore district. The officials and the police are verifying the Covid-19 vaccination certificates or a negative RT-PCR certificate taken within 72 hours of the journey. So, if you are planning to travel to Tamil Nadu from Kerala by road, ensure that you possess either the vaccination certificate or the negative report certificate to enter the state. 

The reports say that several people were sent back to Kerala at the Walayar border after they had failed to present the certificates. Mandating the vaccination and negative report certificate is part of Tamil Nadu's measure to mitigate the spread into the state from Kerela and according to the officials at the Walayar check post, over 3,000 people had reached the border on Sunday alone to enter Tamil Nadu and out of this large-scale influx, several people were sent back to Kerala under the grounds that they didn't possess proper certificates as the ticket to enter the state. 

The officials had said that a large number of people are returning to Tamil Nadu from Kerala after the Onam holidays and most of them had failed to stick to the guidelines to enter the state. Speaking to IANS, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian said, "We are safeguarding the people of Tamil Nadu by strict monitoring as mandated in the guidelines prepared by our health experts and there is stringent checking at the borders." Kerala has been recording around 30,000 fresh Covid-19 cases at an average for the past few days with a Test Positivity Rate (TPR) of 19.67 per cent, far more than the national average. 

If a state breaches over 5 per cent in the TPR, it will be spelt as a cause of concern and with over 19 per cent of TPR, Kerala has been reporting a scale of Covid-19 cases that pour major setbacks for the nation's efforts to defeat the pandemic. According to the Union Health Ministry, India has reported 42,909 new Covid-19 cases, 34,763 recoveries, and 380 deaths in the last 24 hours till 8 am on Monday, which had taken the tally of active cases to 3,76,324, total recoveries to 3,19,23,405, and death toll to 4,38,210 so far. Of 42,909 fresh cases and 380 deaths India has reported, Kerala had recorded 29,836 cases and 75 deaths in the last 24 hours.