A lockdown will be reimposed on Friday on some 15mn people in Chennai and several neighbouring districts in Tamil Nadu, state officials said, as coronavirus cases surge in the region.
Home to 1.3bn people, India has been gradually lifting a nationwide lockdown in a bid to get the economy back on track.
But new infections have still been rising across the country - particularly in Chennai.
“Full Lockdown from 19th for Chennai, Thiruvallur, Chengalpet & Kanchipuram districts,” the Tamil Nadu state government tweeted yesterday.
It will be in place until the end of June.
The southern state has recorded just over 44,000 cases out of a nationwide total of 332,424, according to official figures.
A majority of the cases are in Chennai, according to media reports.
Only shops selling essential items and restaurants will be allowed to remain open from early morning until 2 pm during the lockdown.
The lockdown will be tightened further on Sundays.
The state government also ordered an audit of the number of coronavirus deaths after media reports said at least 200 fatalities were not reflected in the official toll of 435.
Meanwhile, an expert committee said the coronavirus infection in the state is at its peak and will come down in the coming days.
The members of the committee met Chief Minister K Palaniswami to discuss the increasing coronavirus infection in the state.
The committee was set up by the state government a few months back to advise it on the spread of the infection.
Speaking to the reporters after meeting the chief minister, the committee members also said there are possibilities of the infection rate going up again after three months.
The experts said the public should not lower their guard, but continue to be cautious by following safety measures like wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.
In other developments, the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) threatened to go to court if the government did not focus on the issue of coronavirus spread in the state.
DMK president M K Stalin also sought answers from Palaniswami for the rising cases in the state.
India now has the world’s fourth-highest number of infections after the United States, Brazil and Russia, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The nation has been reporting around 10,000 new cases a day recently. In major cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai, reports of patients struggling to find hospital beds have triggered speculation about fresh lockdowns being re-introduced there.
In Delhi, mortuaries are overflowing with bodies, and cemetery and crematorium staff say they cannot keep up with the backlog of corpses.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, however, insisted yesterday there were no plans for a new lockdown.
The Supreme Court said last week that conditions in the national capital were “horrendous, horrific and pathetic”.
India’s economy has been badly hit by the lockdown.