New travel rules for air passengers in Tamil Nadu

This move comes in the wake of coronavirus cases in provinces such as Maharashtra and Kerala

In view of the growing number of Covid-19 cases, the Tamil Department of Health and Family Welfare has issued new travel guidelines for domestic and foreign passengers. The E-pass is compulsory for all foreign passengers and domestic travellers, except those from neighbouring states in Puducherry, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The move comes in the wake of outbreaks of coronavirus cases in provinces such as Maharashtra and Kerala, as Tamil Nadu has been seeing an increase in the number of new infections over the past few days.

The Government's order in this regard was recently issued by the Department of Health and Family Welfare. Travelers visiting the country after making an e-pass allows the government to follow them or their contacts when checking the Covid-19 that they have while staying in Tamil Nadu.

According to the latest order, the auto e-pass is compulsory for all international and domestic passengers from other provinces and union areas. However, those from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry were released.

Last year, in view of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Tamil Nadu government allowed only those with e-pass to travel to regional and international destinations, although customs were later relaxed. Secretary of State for Health J Radhakrishnan recently expressed concern about the loosening of masks and the practice of COVID-19 collections after people attended weddings or funerals. On Sunday, Tamil Nadu continued to see the situation increase in its daily figures with 567 new cases reported, surpassing 8.55 lakh.