By marking the complete lockdown on Sunday for the first time in the current year, Tamil Nadu is all set to go into a week that will largely resemble the grounds of the entire lockdown and tight restrictions as the state has been grimly steering through the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had triggered the state government to impose the lockdown and restrictions to curb the spread. 

The Sunday lockdown was the first such lockdown for the state in seven months and on Saturday, exactly one day ahead of the complete lockdown, the state government has announced further restrictions across the state to strengthen its measure to contain the virus spread amid recording the exponential rise in the number of infections and active cases. The fresh restrictions will come to effect from 4 am on April 26 and it will likely continue till the month-end. Let's take a look at the fresh restrictions that the state will meet in the coming week,

As per the new restrictions, cinema theaters, shopping malls, convention halls, bars, gyms, salons, spas, big stores and recreation centers across the state will be shut down from Monday. Earlier, the state government had banned the full occupancy at the theaters by permitting them to function in 50% of their capacity. From Monday, the theaters will be completely shut in light of the peaking COVID-19 cases. 

In a press release issued on Saturday, the Tamil Nadu government has said that bigger departmental stores will be allowed to function without air-conditioning while spas, salons, and beauty parlors will be closed from April 26. Marriage events are permitted to happen with a maximum of 50 guests while the limit on the attendees for funerals is restricted to 25. 

E-Commerce services can function during the allowed timings and the IT companies are directed to ask at least 50% of their staff to work from home. The state government has made E-registration mandatory to enter the state from other states and countries except Puducherry. The government has also permitted the functioning of sports training centers only for national and international training purposes. 

Restaurants, all the other forms of eateries, and tea stalls are directed to carry on parcel services from April 26 as the government has prohibited the dine-in facilities. The status quo of the timings will be maintained and the government has ordered to shut down all religious places for the public. On the front of transportation, the government has announced that no standees would be allowed in the public transports and all the commuters should wear masks.

The state government has also announced that the night curfew and Sunday lockdown will be in place. Currently, the state has a night curfew from 10 pm to 4 am every day where all kinds of transportations including public transport will be barred during the night curfew. Apart from these restrictions, the banks in the state have also limited their business hours owing to the pandemic and they have decided to encourage the customers to use alternate delivery channels like net banking to avoid crowding at the banks. 

The state-level bankers' committee in Tamil Nadu has on Saturday announced new guidelines in the functioning of the banks in light of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidelines will come to effect from April 26 and will stay in place till April 30 with no assurance that these guidelines won't be extended further. As per the guidelines, the banks will be operating only for four hours from 10 am to 2 pm from Monday and the banks have decided to suspend the functions of the Aadhar Enrolment Center. 

The committee has asserted that ATMs, CDMs, and Cash recyclers will be functioning as usual and it has requested the member banks to educate and encourage their customers to make use of alternate delivery channels/ opt for digital transactions instead of visiting the branches physically. These restrictions would take the state into what would probably become a different and challenging beginning of the week for the first time in the year.