With the State government invoking Section 144 of CrPC in the district, barricades were placed on the arterial roads and the inter-district borders with six neighbouring districts were closed from Tuesday evening.
The nationwide curfew for 21 days from March 24 midnight places strict measures of isolation and social distancing to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the district as two Thailand nationals were tested positive while 13 others were in the isolation ward at the Government IRT Perundurai Medical College and Hospital.
The order asks public to stay at home and venture out only for accessing basic and essential services by following social distancing norms by maintaining a distance of one meter or three feet from other persons.
As many as 13 check posts were established at inter-district borders with Namakkal, Karur, Tiruppur, Coimbatore, The Nilgiris and Salem as the inter-State borders with Karnataka, near Hasanur, and at Bargur were already closed.
Small check posts
Superintendent of Police S. Sakthi Ganesan told The Hindu that 40 other small check posts were established in the district to prevent vehicle movement on arterial roads and also to prevent vehicles entering the district from Kochi – Salem National Highway.
Earlier in the day, most of the shops, bakeries, hotels and commercial establishments were closed while less than half of the buses were operated.
More crowds could be seen in vegetable market, fruit stalls, departmental stores and provisional stores as people stocked up essentials for at least a week.
Despite the ban, weekly shandy at Solar on Muthur Road functioned in the evening as people had a chance to purchase vegetables.
“We know that vegetable shops would remain open during the lockdown. But we cannot risk as things may change overnight”, said Amudha of Sanarmedu.
Usage of masks by the people have also increased on Thursday as many claim that they are sold at higher price in medical shop.
But, Collector C. Kathiravan said that action would be taken against the concerned pharmacy if complaints were received.
