The Tamil Nadu government has intensified Covid testing of passengers from Kerala. The testing was conducted at Chennai central railway station under the leadership of Health Minister Ma Subramanian and Devaswom Minister P K Sekar Babu. The strict checking under the supervision of ministers commenced on Monday morning.
Tamil Nadu has announced that it would allow passengers from Kerala only if they have a negative RT-PCR certificate within 72 hours of the journey or have taken two doses of vaccine with the second dose taken 15 days prior to the journey. Those who do not have any of these documents will be subjected to RT-PCR test. In the railway stations, only if the result is negative, they will be allowed to go out. The Tamil Nadu government made mandatory a negative RT-PCR test report and a COVID-19 vaccination (two doses) certificate for people coming to the State from neighbouring Kerala in order to keep the pandemic under check since August 5. At the check-posts and border posts, huge queues are being witnessed to conduct mandatory checking of the certificates. If a passenger doesn’t have the mandatory RT-PCR negative certificate, the individual would be subjected to an RT-PCR test at the check-post and will have to stay in home quarantine till the report comes. If found positive, the individual will be admitted to a first-line testing centre. Kerala is presently recording 20,000 Covid cases daily on an average with a test positivity rate of more than 13 per cent.
