The Madras High Court today suggested to the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry governments to consider enforcing total and complete lockdown on weekends (May 1 and 2) to prevent the spread of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
In a suo motu plea, the First Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said since counting of votes polled in the April six Assembly elections is slated for May two, which falls on Sunday, the government could only allow movement of vehicles needed for the counting purposes and emergency services.
The Bench observed that the main purpose of the lockdown is to prevent people from venturing out and to control the virus spread.
‘If an appropriate announcement is made well in advance, say by April 28, people may have sufficient notice and may complete their weekend purchases by Friday and follow the lockdown norms as was evident in the Sunday full lockdown observed yesterday”, the Bench said.
The State government had already imposed night curfew from 10.00 P.M to 4.00 A.M from April 20, besides complete lockdown on all Sundays, the first of which was observed yesterday.
While announcing fresh restrictions that came into force from today, the government said the night curfew and the Sunday lockdown will continue.
