As the state of Tamil Nadu is just two days ahead to hit the deadline of the current phase of the lockdown, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has convened a meet with the district collectors on Wednesday to frame out the road ahead for August on pushing the state's fight against the COVID-19 along with meeting the people's expectations on the relaxations front.

According to the reports, the state government will be making key announcements concerning the lockdown on Thursday. The Chief Minister would also be meeting the medical experts, on Thursday, who are advising and recommending the government the lockdown and the containment measures to curb the spread of the virus.

One of the strong expectations is that the resumption of the public transportation channels which have been under shut down for over three months. It has been speculated that the government would decide to resume the inter-districts bus transports, which would be a major relaxation for gradually exiting from the lockdown. However, the reports stated that its less likely the government would resume the public transport in Chennai and its limits.

The government would largely carry forward the existing restrictions to the complete of August with slight relaxations as the state gears up to see another extension of the lockdown. The reports close the developments said that the government would resume the inter and intra-district public transportations except for Chennai, but however, the resumption of the entire public transportation corridors is far away.

According to the reports, the state government would come up with its final decision on Thursday after meeting the medical experts and it would likely resume the zonal system of transport which was active in June. On June 1st, the government has divided the state into eight zones for transportations and it has made the requirement of e-pass mandatory for the travel between the zones while permitting the intra-zone travels e-pass free.

However, after the state witnessed a spurt of COVID-19 cases, it later repealed the zonal system and suspended the entire inter and intra-district public transportation by allowing the private vehicles for emergency purposes. For this time, the government doesn't want to resume the travel at one shot and it may go for the second episode of the zonal system of transport with tight regulations. 

Chennai and the areas that fall under the limits of Chennai police would see no resumption of the public transport at least till the end of August and the government won't be re-opening the recreational centers like shopping malls, cinema halls, gyms, and parks and the educational institutions, schools, and colleges would remain shut for August. With another phase of the lockdown, the state government has been ramping up the efforts to increase testing and conducting fever camps. 

As the virus cases surge across the state particularly in southern districts that are emerging as the hotspots, the government has been pacing up aggressive testing in districts like Kanyakumari, Madurai, Virudhunagar, Thoothukudi, and Tirunelveli. The state would be closing July month with the major contribution from Chennai and active contributions from the rest of the districts in taking the state's COVID-19 to unprecedented high. 

On Tuesday, the state has reported yet another of the biggest spike of 6,972 fresh cases. As of Tuesday, Tamil Nadu has reported 2,27,688 cases so far of which 57,073 are active, 1,66,956 cases have been discharged, and 3,659 had succumbed to the virus.