Tamil Nadu to shut cinemas, places of worship, bars from April 26

People from abroad and other states shall be allowed entry to Tamil Nadu only if they have registered in the portal http://eregister.tnega.org and information on registration should be produced to authorities on arrival

Chennai: Cinemas, places of worship, malls, bars and salons must be shut effective April 26, the Tamil Nadu government announced on Saturday reintroducing more curbs following surging COVID-19 cases.

People from abroad and other states shall be allowed entry to Tamil Nadu only if they have registered in the portal http://eregister.tnega.org and information on registration should be produced to authorities on arrival.

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Those from neighbouring union territory of Puducherry are exempted from the e-registration norm, the government said in an official release. Recreation clubs, all types of bars, auditoriums, big format shops, shopping complexes and malls shall not be allowed to operate, the government said.

In all corporation and municipal areas, beauty parlours spas and salons are not allowed and only takeaway services should be offered in restaurants, hotels and tea shops.

“In all places of worship, there will be no permission for the general public to offer worship,” the government said. However, there was no bar on employees continuing with usual worship and prayer sessions, it added.

The general public must not be allowed in temple consecration functions too. Sporting activities, except those related to international and national level events, would also not be permitted.
Not more than 50 people may assemble for marriages and for funeral the upper limit is 25, the government said. The current restrictions like night curfew (10 pm-4 am), and Sunday lockdown would continue to be on.

Groceries and all other kinds of retail outlets may continue to operate as usual and department stores could function without using airconditioning facility and by sticking to the ’50 per cent’ customer capacity norm.

The state government had announced reintroduction of curbs like permission only for 50 per cent seating capacity in cinemas from April 10 and days ago it postponed class 12 public examination and came up with complete lockdown on Sundays and night curfew from 10 pm to 4 am, effective April 20 as virus cases continued to surge.

As on Friday, Tamil Nadu had close to one lakh active COVID-19 cases.