Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government on Monday banned new year celebrations and public gatherings on beaches on December 31 and January 1 amid a threat over the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. However, Chief Minister MK Stalin announced to avoid any gap in education that offline classes can resume in full swing for school and college students on a normal basis from January 3.


In the new Covid-19 norms released after a review meeting with senior officials, MK Stalin in a statement said, the public will not be allowed on beaches on December 31, 2021, and January 1, 2022, to control the spread of Covid-19, as per a report on PTI. 


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Further, the students who were reporting to offline classes on a rotational basis should soon gear to attend classes in full swing from January.


The Chief Minister said that the classes for standard 6-12 students will no longer be held on a rotational basis and regular classes on a usual basis will begin from January 3, 2022. The CM said the same schedule will be applied for colleges and technical training centers. 


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However, as Omicron cases are spreading in the neighbouring states including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, The Chief Minister instructed the officials to not put the guard down and continue with "Test-track-treat-vaccination-Covid appropriate behaviour". 


The Chief Minister also requested the public to continue using face masks and maintain physical distancing to avoid the spread of Covid-19. He also requested the people to get Covid-19 vaccination to prevent the chain of infection spread.