The Tamil Nadu government on Monday allowed reopening of classes for all final year undergraduate students from December 7, across arts and science, technical, engineering and agricultural programs.Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami released a statement that the state will continue to remain in Covid-19 induced lockdown till December 31 but announced a slew of new relaxations with standard operating procedures (SOP). Classes for undergraduate and postgraduate students in medicine-related courses will resume from December 7 but classes for first year students who have been admitted in the 2020-2021 academic year will begin only from February 1, 2021. 

People are also allowed to visit beaches from December 14. The state has allowed indoor political, social, religious and recreational gatherings in auditoriums with 50% seating capacity or a maximum of 200 people with permission from the police and district authorities from December 1. Swimming pools will reopen only for sports training. Exhibition halls will open for business purposes. As of November 29, a total of 7,80,505 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Tamil Nadu and 11,703 people have lost their lives.