As the state of Tamil Nadu is four days ahead of marking the deadline of the fifth phase of lockdown that comes to an end by June 30, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has been scheduled to meet the medical experts' committee on June 29 to formulate the road ahead for the state after June 30 and to decide whether or not to extend the lockdown.

The medical experts' committee has been installed by the state government to advise on containing the spread. The committee is comprised of health experts, epidemiologists, and infectious disease experts and panel has become crucial in the state government's battle of curbing the spread and this committee played an important role in extending the lockdown previously.

According to the reports, the Chief Minister would be convening a meet at a high time when the state has been witnessing an exponential rise of COVID-19 cases. At the current state of the outbreak, it's less likely that Tamil Nadu would pull itself out from the lockdown at one shot and sharpest rises suggest that the state may go under the sixth phase of the lockdown.

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Currently, the state has been going under the fifth phase of lockdown since June 1 and while the government is trying to get paid off from the lockdown, it has been adding more cases to its tally since June 1. The state government has already imposed the intense lockdown in Chennai and its three adjacent districts for 12 days from June 19 to June 30 to mitigate the spread after these four districts accounted for major share in the cases recorded by the state. 

Following Chennai and its neighbors, Madurai and Theni have been going through the enhanced lockdown since June 24 as the COVID-19 wave has been blowing across the state. According to the Union Health Ministry, Tamil Nadu is the third Indian state with the most number of cases after Maharashtra (1,47,741) and Delhi (73,780). As of Thursday, Tamil Nadu has reported 70,977 cases so far. The reports stated that with the current state, there is a possibility that the government may extend the lockdown after June 30 and the Chief Minister will be making fresh announcements on the road ahead for the state after meeting the medical experts' committee.

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