Owing to a surge in Covid-19 cases in the state yet again, the Tamil Nadu government has made face masks mandatory for people in all public places. Violating this would lead to the person being penalized.

The Tamil Nadu Health Department reportedly stated that if anyone is caught without mask at public places, he/she will have to pay Rs 500 as a fine. The order comes as Tamil Nadu has witnessed a rise in cases of the viral infection over the last couple of days. The state has registered 39 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, taking the tally to 34,53,390.

“We had collected more than Rs 110 crore from over 66 lakh people for violations. We stopped imposing fines but did not say masks were not necessary. Now as masks are mandatory, all districts have been asked to impose fines for violations,” Health secretary J Radhakrishnan was quoted as saying.

He further added, “It has been decided to increase the total number of samples that were tested by the health department per day. It was 16,000 (16,583) yesterday, today it will be 18,000 (18,825).. we have directed department authorities to increase the total number of samples collected per day to 25,000.”