Metropolitan bus services in Chennai resumed after 162 days of lockdown after the State government relaxed the Covid-19 restrictions from Tuesday. However, the patronage was low on the first day of resumption.

From March 23, bus services were stopped across Tamil Nadu due to the lockdown. On June 1, the State limited bus services were allowed in all districts except Chennai and three neighbouring districts of Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur. However, due to a surge in Covid-19 cases, the services in districts were also stopped from June 25.

State transport minister MR Vijayabhaskar said that out of the 22,000 buses only 6,000 were operated in the State.

The government allowed only intra-district bus services from today. The patronage has been low in many of the districts.

Places of worship were also allowed to open across the State from Tuesday but there was not much crowd. Children below the age 10 and persons above 60 years were not allowed.

Malls were also opened up for the public from Tuesday but footfall was low. Multiplexes inside the malls will, however, remain closed till further orders.

Covid spread

Meanwhile, there was an addition of 5,928 coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu in the last 24 hours to take the total number of infections to 4.33 lakh.

The number of samples tested was 75,165 (total 48.88 lakh).

After 6,031 Covid-19 patients were discharged (total 3.74 lakh), the number of active cases stood at 52,379.

The number of deaths increased by 96 to a total of 7,418..

The number of infections in Chennai dropped sharply to 1,084; patients discharged were 1,194; deaths were 22 and active cases were 13,107.

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