New restrictions in district from Monday as cases rise

Except the shops selling essentials, the other shops will be open only from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the district

August 01, 2021 12:03 am | Updated 08:28 am IST - Coimbatore

A doctor and other members of a home triage team of the Coimbatore Corporation coming out of a house on Friday after visiting a person who had tested positive.

A doctor and other members of a home triage team of the Coimbatore Corporation coming out of a house on Friday after visiting a person who had tested positive.

With increasing number of COVID-19 positive cases in Coimbatore district, Collector G.S. Sameeran has announced that a new set of restrictions to control the spread of the disease will come into force on August 2.

Mr. Sameeran said on Saturday that except the shops selling essentials such as milk, vegetables and medicines, the other shops will be open only from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the district. All shops except those selling essential items in the Corporation limits on Cross Cut Road, 100-Feet Road, Gandhipuram 5,6, 7 streets, Oppanakara Street, Ramamoorthy street, Saramedu Road, Rice Mill Road, NP Itteri Road, Thudiyalur junction and Ellai Thotta junction will not be permitted to function on Sundays.

Restaurants across the district will be open to customers from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and only parcel service will be permitted from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The restaurants should have only 50 % occupancy. All wholesale markets in the district will be permitted to sell only to wholesale traders and there will not be any retail trade. Further, only 50 % of the shops in the markets can operate on a day. So the shops in the markets will open on alternate days in turns. Anyone travelling from Kerala to Coimbatore should have the RT PCR test report taken 72 hours before or certificates for taking both doses of the vaccination. If there are travellers without either of these, they will have to take random RT PCR test at the checkposts, he said.

These were decided after a meeting with the trade and industry here on Saturday.

Meanwhile, industries in Coimbatore, including Micro, Small and Medium scale Enterprises (MSMEs), are on alert as the cases are on the rise again in the district.

“We are all wearing masks, check temperature, and use hand sanitisers at the units,” said Mr. Ramesh Babu.

“The government should expedite vaccination for all workers and industry employees. It should allocate more vaccines to industry associations. There is more demand for vaccines now,” said Mr. Ramesh Babu.

“Industries will have to be careful and avoid crowding,” said B. Karthigaivasan, general manager of the District Industries Centre.

Industry sources say that while it is true that workers are returning to factories after relaxation of lockdown restrictions, there are no major incidents of COVID spread in the factories.

“If the cases go up and the government introduces lockdown restrictions, we have no option but to stop operations,” says A. Sivakumar, president of the Coimbatore and Tiruppur District Tiny and Micro Entrepreneurs Association.

Different government departments are also conducting regular inspections at industries.

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