CHENNAI: Amid circulating reports suggesting that wearing face masks in public places has been made mandatory, Tamil Nadu’s Director of Public Health, Dr Selvavinayagam, has issued a clarification stating that no such directive has been issued by the government.

This comes in the wake of the World Health Organization’s weekly Covid-19 report released on May 4, which noted that the spread of Covid-19 remains very low in South Asian countries including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Thailand, said a Daily Thanthi report.

Dr. Selvavinayagam assured the public that there is no need to panic about the virus, and emphasised that the government has not made face masks compulsory in public areas.

He added that the current strain of the virus is not highly virulent and that all necessary precautionary measures have already been put in place to prevent its spread.