Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami is set to meet Collectors and health experts on 28 December to discuss about the new mutant variant of Covid-19 and to extend lockdown.

According to sources, the Chief Minister will get the expert opinion on the new strain of Covid-19 vaccine from the panel of health experts appointed by the State government. He will also seek opinion on extension of next phase of lockdown from 1 January, he said.

Meanwhile, Health Minister C Vijayabaskar on Wednesday said around 2,800 persons, who had arrived in the State from the UK over the past few days, were under complete observation.

“These persons were under three-pronged observation,” he said. Health Secretary Dr Radhakrishnan said, though the Centre has banned all flights from United Kingdom till the end of this year, those who arrived into the State from various states by road, especially from Bengaluru, were being identified.

Monitoring has been intensified and checkposts were erected in the borders to ensure that those entering the State were subjected to tests.

Stating that monitoring and testing has been increased at the airports and the government has put in place all measures to prevent spread of the virus and entry of SARs-CoV2 into the state, the Health Secretary said there was no need for the people to fear.