Only vaccinated people allowed to enter malls, hotels in Madurai

Chennai : As India detected two cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus, Tamil Nadu's Madurai on Saturday announced a ban on entry of unvaccinated people to the malls and hotels.

"One week's time has been given to people to get at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, failing which those unvaccinated people to be not allowed to enter public places like hotels, shopping malls and other commercial establishments," Madurai Collector Aneesh Sekhar told ANI.

A similar announcement was made in Karnataka, where two men had tested positive for Omicron strain. The state has made double vaccination mandatory for people to enter markets, malls and other public places.

Three international air travellers, including a child, who had arrived in Tamil Nadu from Singapore and the United Kingdom, have tested positive for Covid. The samples have been sent for genome sequencing to ascertain if they are infected with the latest variant of coronavirus.

In the last 24 hours, Tamil Nadu has registered around 711 new cases of coronavirus. The death count rose to 36,513 with 9 more Covid-related deaths on Friday.