Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said on Saturday that the current situation has made it unavoidable for the Tamil Nadu government to prolong the COVID-19 lockdown, which was supposed to end on the morning of May 24 without any relaxations.
He told a consultative panel of all-party leaders at the Secretariat that the medical experts team, with whom he had earlier met, had suggested a lockout with no relaxations.
“During my tour in the districts I received similar views,” he said. Mr. Stalin said when the government brought in some relaxations, some people had taken advantage of them and treated the lockdown as a holiday and were roaming around the roads and streets.
“The lockdown was announced for the benefit of people and to save their lives. A lot of people have died and their deaths have raised question marks over the future of their families. There is a fear in the speech of people, but their actions have not reflected it,” he said.
Mr Stalin said that though the police advised people not to violate the relaxations, their advice was not heeded to. “We have roped in film personalities to create awareness about the disease,” he said.
The Chief Minister also said that medical professionals were already under a lot of stress and mental strain, and the government couldn’t afford to put them under any more.
“Though students would enjoy their holidays, now holidays have become a pain. The pandemic has caused depression among students. We have to secure their education and future,” he further said.
Mr Stalin said though the State government has been getting oxygen from Odisha on a regular basis, heavy rain in the State had disturbed the supply. “We have asked Maharashtra to send oxygen and I have written a letter to the Chief Minister of the State. We also sought over 900 metric tonne oxygen from the Centre and my letter was handed over to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal by DMK Parliamentary Party leader T.R. Baalu,” he said.
