On the day when schools for standard 1 to 8 standards reopened after a gap of nearly 20 months, the number of daily Coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu declined to less than 1,000 to 990 after 226 days in the second wave.

In the first wave, the number of cases came down to less than 1,000 for the first time on December 29, 2020 and reached below 500 in early February 2021. However, the cases started to increase in the second wave and crossed 1,000 on March 19 and peaked on May 21 at 36,178. However, since then it has been on decline as vaccination picked up momentum.

“With the majority of children going to school from class 1 to 8, parents please make sure the adults & senior citizens in home are fully vaccinated, as the risk of passing Covid to elders and parents are high, it’s always safe to send kids to school if you’re fully vaccinated,” Covid data analyst Vijayanand tweeted. Health Secretary, J Radhakrishnan in a message to District Collectors said that “as we hit below 1,000 positives after several months after a lot of dedicated work by your field teams in following up Chief Minister’s directions and Chief Secretary’s guidance and also implementing the public health measures, we need to ensure that common people do not and should not jump and start celebrating but rather view it as a time for introspection.”

Covid norm compliance

Only once the majority started following the public health measures of mask, social distance and started taking to vaccinations in the month of May onwards when the threat of catching covid and death was real , the cases started coming down.

“Let us realise that relaxation comes with a lot of responsibilities in the follow up of Covid appropriate behaviour and SOPs for permitted activities and also ensuring eligible persons get vaccinated. We need to approach the coming days and a few more months till all eligible get vaccinated with a lot of caution,” he said.

Schools reopen

Meanwhile, throughout the State, there was a good response to the school reopening. There were visuals of teachers welcoming the kids with sweets, new notebooks and goodies. In fact, in a primary school in Sivaganga, the kids were in for a surprise when a huge elephant welcomed them. Chief Minister MK Stalin distributed books among students in the city.

While kids want to return to school, some of the parents are still reluctant to send them, and will be in wait and watch mode for the next few days. School managements have been instructed not to take regular classes for at least two weeks, and engage students in creative activities.

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