Chennai, May 8 (PTI) With Tamil Nadu witnessing a sharp increase in the covid-19 cases, the government on Saturday announced clamping a two-week "total lockdown" across the state to curb the spread of the pandemic.

Chief Minister M K Stalin said in a statement that the lockdown was being enforced due to "unavoidable reasons" and pointed out that the decision was taken based on inputs received at a review meeting he had with district collectors on Friday, besides consultations with medical experts.

"The total lockdown will be enforced from 4 am on May 10 to 4 am on May 24," he said.

Tamil Nadu saw 26,465 new coronavirus cases on Friday, pushing the caseload to 13.23 lakh while a record 197 deaths in the last 24 hours took the toll to 15,171.

According to the health department, the active cases stood at 1,35,355.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)