Current affairs

In Pics: Chennai goes deserted as lockdown comes back!

By alagu, 25 April, 2021
Chennai, Lockdown, Tamilnadu, COVID-19

Chennai has become one of the major cities in India to grimly caught under the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the sequel of the exponential rise of infections and active cases, the state government has again called for the support of lockdown in mitigating the spread in the city, which is the epicenter of the state. The government has imposed a complete lockdown on Sundays last week across the state to limit the movement of the people.

Along with the complete lockdown, the state has been combating the pandemic in dark through the night curfew amid the government's campaign for vaccination. In what has become a prefix of possible lockdown expansion, Chennai and the state had marked the first complete lockdown in the year on Sunday (April 25th, 2021). On Sunday, the city has gone deserted with rewinding the memories of the last year, where it witnessed the unprecedented experiment for the first time. 

Major roads in the downtown and in the outskirts had gone quiet and most of the establishments were closed. The state government has permitted the functioning of extremely essential and emergency services while issuing strict orders to the residents to adhere to the guidelines. The government had deployed thousands of police personnel and installed a chain of barricades to hamper the unnecessary movements. 

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EVR Periyar road goes deserted near Chennai Central Railway station - April 25, 2021.

 

The visuals from Chennai had in fact shown an eerie emptiness and police personnel can be seen checking the vehicles that passed by for their reason for movements. Key areas like Chennai Central, Koyambedu, T Nagar, and Nungambakkam had masked its state of busyness and grounds of large-scale movements. According to reports, around 80,000 police personnel have been deputed on the duty of enforcing the lockdown of which around 7,000 officials are stationed in Chennai. 

The police had installed checkpoints across Chennai and monitoring the movements of vehicles. The law enforcement agency had also warned the people to invite penalty if they are found to be violating the guidelines and exiting their residences for flimsy reasons. The police had also warned that the vehicle would be seized for making unnecessary movements. If people are going for emergency purposes like hospital emergencies,  marriages, and deaths, they have to show adequate evidence. 

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Traffic police personnel checking the vehicle movements in the wake of the complete lockdown in Chennai on Sunday -April 25, 2021.

 

The hotels and other forms of eateries are also directed to function only to offer parcel services. They can offer parcel services from 6 am - 10 am; 12 pm - 3 pm; 6 pm - 9 pm. The food delivering platforms like Swiggy and Zomato are permitted to function in this time scale. On Saturday, the state government has announced that theaters, beauty parlors, salons, spas, and barbershops will be closed in the state from April 26 while the hotels, restaurants, and tea shops are allowed to offer parcel services. 

The fresh set of restrictions has come when the state has reported the highest single-day rise in the COVID-19 cases. The daily count has been surpassing the count of its previous day and on Saturday, the state has reported 14,842 fresh cases for the first time since the outbreak began. It also has reported 9,142 discharges and 80 deaths. Overall, the state has reported 10,66,329 cases so far as of Wednesday of which 1,00,668 are active cases, 9,52,186 have been discharged, and 13,475 people had succumbed to the viral infection. 

 

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