As Tamil Nadu crossed the grim 2,000 mark with 121 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said the infections were on the rise as people have a casual attitude towards tackling the contagion.
Palaniswami hinted that easing curbs beyond May 3 hinged on a dip in numbers in the state, which is linked to effective toeing of norms like social distancing.
A 68-year-old man died here of COVID-19, the 25th fatality and with 121 more people testing positive, the aggregate number of those infected in Tamil Nadu so far climbed to 2,058, authorities said.
The Chief Minister, chairing a review meeting of top officials at the Secretariat, said coronavirus cases in the state were on the rise as people have a casual attitude towards norms like social distancing and do not understand the gravity of the contagion.
"The problem lies in the vegetable markets of big corporations like Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli and Madurai.
Despite telling people (on precautions to be taken against COVID-19 like social distancing), they do not follow it and think of it casually.
They don't understand the intensity and impact of this disease," he said.
Underscoring that Tamil Nadu was still in the early stages, unlike some nations which were witnessing full blown spread of the virus, he said "when we take appropriate steps, the spread of the contagion can be easily halted if people give their full cooperation."