CHENNAI, Feb 27: The Tamil Nadu Government has made it mandatory for people coming from Kerala and Maharashtra to produce covid negative RT-PCR test certificates not older than 72 hours to enter the State. Kerala and Maharashtra are the two worst affected by a new wave of the epidemic in the country.

The health department, in an order dated February 24, said that people travelling from Kerala and Maharashtra must otherwise spend seven days under home quarantine and monitor health for another seven days. Earlier, Karnataka had imposed such restrictions on those coming from the two States.

Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh were also reported witnessing a surge in covid cases for over a week.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the Union Health Ministry said that six States have recorded an upsurge in active cases of covid: Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases. There were 8,333 new cases on Friday. Kerala followed with 3,671 cases and Punjab reported 622 new cases. Maharashtra suffered the maximum casualties of 48, Punjab 15 and Kerala 14 deaths in the last 24 hours.

In Maharashtra, Nagpur district administration has imposed weekend lockdown. Guardian Minister of Nagpur Dr Nitin Rawat yesterday took a review meeting and appealed to the public to co- operate with district administration to control the spread of virus. He also said this is not a complete lockdown. Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar inspected the main squares of the city. He said that people are responding well to this weekend lockdown, reported AIR.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has written to all the States and Union Territories informing that covid guidelines have been extended till March 31.

A total of 16,488 new cases were reported in the country in the past 24 hours.