Amid the heated campaigns for the upcoming assembly polls, Tamil Nadu is preparing to brace up for what would become another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the sequel of a steady increase in fresh cases, the state has been pushed to initiate preventive measures to contain the spread in the state, when India is a week away from marking the first anniversary of the nationwide lockdown.

Even as the entire battalion of ministers including the Chief Minister has been on the campaign trail for the assembly polls which will be held on April 6, Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Rajeev Ranjan has on Tuesday convened a crucial meet and discussed with the district collectors on the ground situation and the passed the orders to the district administrations towards curbing the spread. 

In the virtual meeting, Rajeev Ranjan had directed local bodies, health, and revenue departments, and police to monitor whether the people are wearing masks and following the guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). The Chief Secretary had asked the district administrations to impose a fine on people if they defy the guidelines and fail to wear the masks at public places.

The system of imposing a fine was active in Tamil Nadu last year when the state was under a complete lockdown and it has now become active and the state will be imposing a fine on people who caught without wearing masks under the grounds of the Public  Safety Act. An official release said that the Chief Secretary held a review meeting with the district administrators and the heads of the department through the video conference.

The release said, "Permission should be granted for election rallies, cultural, religious, and other events where the public gather in huge numbers, with a condition that wearing masks is mandatory. All the connected departments have been instructed to ensure that they follow the guidelines". The district collectors are directed to focus on  COVID-19 preventive measures and to deploy all the mechanisms to curb the spread.

The Chief Secretary further asked the district administrations to take appropriate disease control measures by deploying personnel in COVID-19 cluster areas and he advised to increase the fever camps,  identify the cases, and provide treatments. According to reports, Ranjan asked the districts to execute a special scheme to prevent transmission in infected areas and officials must ensure restrictions of movement in containment zones and disinfectants should be sprayed in public gathering places. 

The Chief Secretary advised the concerned authorities and district administrations to ensure to disinfect the public places like offices, institutions, industries, restaurants as per the SOPs, and fever symptoms are checked. The close contacts of the infected people must be isolated and RT-PCR tests should be done for them and government has to take efforts to vaccinate the eligible people. 

The meeting and the order of imposing a fine have come after the state had recorded a positivity rate of 1.2% in the last ten days and the positivity rate is more than 2% in districts like Chennai and Coimbatore and after a sharp decline, Tamil Nadu has been reporting over 800 cases every day in recent times as the state is reeling towards the possible second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the state health department, Tamil Nadu has reported 8,61,429 cases so far as of Tuesday including 867 fresh cases that were reported on Tuesday. Of these total cases, 5,450 are active, 8,43,423 cases have been discharged while 12,556 had succumbed to the viral infection.