Tamil Nadu continues to remain in second place among the list of states in India, most affected by the COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus Pandemic! While for a long time Chennai seemed to be turning into the COVID capital of India, the past few days have returned very good numbers for the district, especially after the 17-day intense lockdown in Chennai and its surrounding regions! However, the rest of the districts in Tamil Nadu are seeing a surge in the daily COVID numbers, with many districts recording a very high number of cases, daily! One such district is Madurai, where the intense lockdown was extended till July 12th, even after it was lifted and just the genral lockdown rules applied, for Chennai and its neighbouring districts!

The intensive lockdown was applied in Madurai, till the midnight of July 12th (today)! However, earlier today, the Tamil Nadu government has extended the intensive lockdown period for another 2 days! Hence, the intensive lockdown rules will apply for Madurai, till the midnight of July 14th (Tuesday)! This decision has been taken to help with the ongoing efforts to control the spread of the Corona Virus, in the Madurai district! Once this lockdown is lifted (post July 14th), Madurai will continue to follow the lockdown guidelines it was following till June 24th! Today's overall COVID numbers for Tamil Nadu have again breached the 4000 mark and turned in 4244 new cases, all over the state.

Madurai has recorded 319 new cases and the district has now registered a total of 6078, while 3372 of them are currently active! There have been a total of 3590 recoveries and discharges in the district with the death toll being 116! The numbers have been drastically reducing in Chennai and after a couple of days of being around the 1200 mark, it has now come down to being around the 1100 mark! The general thought is that the people who left from Chennai to their hometowns before the last intensive lockdown there, have carried the virus back to other districts and that is considered to be the reason behind the sharp increase in numbers here! A report from the TN Government's health department is that, it is considering implementing the same strategy it followed in Chennai, in all other districts where the numbers are high! Door-to-door checkups are also being planned for other districts! Stay tuned for updates!