Chennai, Mar 31 (IANS): With the Covid cases again showing an upward trend, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to make wearing masks mandatory in all government hospitals from April 1 onwards.

State Health minister Ma. Subramanian Friday said that starting Saturday, outpatients, inpatients, visitors, doctors, nurses and other health-related staff will have to compulsorily wear masks at all government health facilities.

Numbering over 11,300, these facilities include health sub-centres, primary health centres (PHCs), urban PHCs, taluk and non-taluk hospitals, apart from district headquarters hospitals and government medical college hospitals.

"All state and district-level health officers have been directed to ensure compliance of the mask rule in all government health facilities from Saturday," the minister told reporters on Friday.

Even though Covid norms are in place in the state, the decision to implement the mask rule in hospitals has been taken because infections usually begin multiplying at hospitals first, the minister said, explaining the rationale behind the move.

Tamil Nadu reported 123 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, while 3,095 cases have been reported from across India in the past 24 hours, the minister told reporters.