A 19-member medical expert committee on Friday recommended that that Tamil Nadu government extend the COVID-19 lockdown for 15 more days from April 15. The state cabinet will meet at 5 pm on Saturday to decide on extending the lockdown.
Emerging out of a two-hour-long meeting, Dr Prabhdeep Kaur from ICMR National Institute of Epidemiology said that the spread of the virus was increasing in the state despite several initiatives taken by the government.
“The measures taken by the government to contain the spread of the virus are commendable. Despite these measures, the infection spread is increasing. So we recommended that the government extend the lockdown for 15 more days from April 15,” she said.
“We recommended that during the extension the level of testing has to be increased. Even those who are in isolation should be tested for the novel coronavirus,” she added.
The recommendations made by the committee will be placed for further discussion in the cabinet meeting on Saturday and a final decision on lockdown will be taken. The Tamil Nadu government seems to be struggling to find out an exit strategy to fight the virus and lift the lockdown.
Till Thursday, the state government was not willing to take a unilateral decision like Odisha did. On Thursday, after a review meeting with the authorities concerned, the chief minister said that the medical expert committee will be consulted before taking a decision on extending the lockdown.
Sources in the state secretariat said that the government was looking at the centre to come out with its decision. “Extending the lockdown without the Centre doing it would be meaningless. We cannot close the borders and the airports unless the Centre decides on extending the lockdown,” a senior bureaucrat told THE WEEK.
However, the officials are sure that the Centre might not lift the lockdown in one go; Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, has dropped enough hints on extending the lockdown. With no exit strategy other than extending the lockdown, sources said, experts in the committee felt that only by searching the cases and isolating and testing them can bring down the number of cases.