In the wake of the soaring COVID-19 cases in the state, Tamil Nadu government has decided to let the lockdown play its role to curb the spread by providing another extension to the existing restrictions and the fresh spell of the lockdown has come to effect on Monday - May 18 and it will be in place till May 31st. 

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has issued the statement on Sunday in which he announced the extension and the road ahead for the state to close May month. Although the government has kept the restrictions in some places, it has poured some relaxations in some of the areas with the view of having gradual exit from the complete lockdown. 

The Chief Minister stated that the decision of extending the lockdown has been taken based on the inputs and recommendations disclosed by the health and medical experts and the district collectors on the current state of the outbreak. According to the fresh guidelines, the government has eased the transportation in 25 districts. 

Districts like Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, Tiruppur, Namakkal, Karur, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Tenkasi, Kanyakumari, Theni, Madurai, Sivagangai, Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram, Dindigul, Pudukottai, Trichy, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Vellore, and The Nilgiris are permitted to re-open the intra-district transportations without the requirement of the e-passes. 

However, these 25 districts won't resume public transports and people have been permitted for the intra-district travel without e-passes in their own and rental vehicles for the necessary and essential services and they should refrain from making unnecessary travels and the government has clarified that e-pass is mandatory for all inter-district travels across the state. The rest 12 districts including Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur would stay under the restrictions and lockdown.

The government has mandated the requirement of the e-pass in these 12 districts for intra-district travels and only extremely emergency services would be permitted to ply. There will be no relaxations on the lockdown in the COVID-19 containment zones across the state and all the non-essential services will remain closed till May 31st. The order has let the private and business establishments to use a minimal workforce for maintenance purpose.

Schools, colleges, religious places, shopping complexes, malls, cinema halls, and all sorts of recreational centers will remain closed so are the transportation channels including inter and intra-district train services, metro, and suburban train services. The Chief Minister further stated the government would request the Center to permit two special trains a week between Delhi and Chennai.

The fresh guidelines had given relaxations on the curbs of transportations for 25 districts while no relaxations have been provided in 12 districts that have been reporting more COVID-19 cases. The government offices from the Chief Secretariat to the village offices across the state had started functioning on Monday with 50% of the manpower in the work plan of six days a week. 

The government has permitted the road, rail, and air transports that had acquired special permission from the state and Central governments. The Chief Minister notified that the restrictions will not be applicable for those who are involved in the evaluation of class XII board exams. According to the Union Health Ministry, Tamil Nadu has reported 11,224 COVID-19 cases so far as of Sunday of which 4172 had recovered and 78 had passed away. Tamil Nadu stands at the third spot with the most number of cases in India after Maharashtra and Gujarat.