Shivamogga Deputy Commissioner K.B. Shivakumar has appealed to people in the district to follow COVID-19 guidelines strictly as the number of positive cases has been on the rise in the last week.
At a press conference in Shivamogga on Friday, he said people have to wear face masks, and maintain physical distance in public places. The officers would impose a penalty on those violate the guidelines in markets, commercial complexes, and marriage halls. The shopkeepers should insist on customers wearing face masks, he said.
“In the last one week, the officers collected ₹1.63 lakh against 1,016 cases of violation,” he said.
The district administration has increased the number of tests per day in the last week. Every day around 2,200 samples are collected. “The positivity rate is around 1.1% in the district. The pandemic is under control. However, the number of cases has been increasing in neighbouring districts. We can control the spread of the infection only if people follow the guidelines strictly,” he said.
The administration is prepared to face the situation. McGann Hospital has got a well-equipped intensive care unit, supported by an oxygen unit. Random testing had been done at the railway station, bus stand and other places, he said.
So far 85% of the health workers had got the first dose of vaccine and 53% have got the second dose. Besides them, 63% of the frontline workers had been vaccinated. As many as 58,814 people aged above 60 years had been vaccinated and 1,470 people aged above 45 years have got the first dose of vaccination, he said.
Earlier, the DC held a meeting with senior officers of various departments about the measures necessary to avoid the spread of the infection.
