Karnataka government on Monday decided to ease night curfew regulations imposed in the state due to Covid-19 in most areas except four districts, which are sharing its borders with Kerala.
State Revenue Minister R Ashok said that in meeting chaired by chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, it was decided that night curfew would be relaxed in all areas except Kodagu, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, which share borders with Kerala, which is reporting a high COVID caseload, reported news agency ANI.
Moreover, the state also tightened the quarantine rules for passengers from Kerala. In a fresh order, Ashok said that one week institutional quarantine and testing after seven days, irrespective of vaccination or negative RTPCR report, is compulsory for people coming from Kerala.
The Karnataka government had earlier decided to delegate to district authorities the power to formulate Covid containment measures instead of imposing a statewide curfew.
Along with this, the existing guidelines – night curfew across the state and weekend curfew in border districts – were also ordered to continue.
Earlier, Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner K V Rajendra said had said that restrictions on the movement of people enforced at the border with Kerala will continue as there has been no change in the Covid-19 situation in Kerala.
Giving a clarification on reports claiming that the Centre has lifted the requirement of RT-PCR certificates to cross the border, he said the Karnataka government's order mandating the RT-PCR test negative certificates for those coming to DK from Kerala is still in force. The order is meant to contain the spread of Covid-19 and the district administration will continue to implement the same, he said. Rajendra said more than 30,000 new Covid cases are being reported from Kerala daily and the test positivity rate in neighbouring Kasaragod district is around 12 per cent.
In Dakshina Kannada, the positivity rate has been brought down to around 2 with a lot of effort and lifting of border restrictions will be like letting in new cases from Kerala. Though it is difficult to implement, the district has no other option than making the RT-PCR certificate mandatory, he said. The test positivity rate in Dakshina Kannada district came down to 1.81 per cent on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Karnataka on Monday reported 973 new cases of COVID-19 and 15 deaths, taking the total number of infections to 29,48,228 and death toll to 37,293, the health department said. The day also saw 1,324 discharges, taking the total number of recoveries to 28,92,517.
Bengaluru Urban recorded 264 new cases as the city saw 261 discharges and three deaths. Active cases stood at 18,392. While the positivity rate for the day stood at 0.64 per cent, case fatality rate (CFR) was at 1.54 per cent.
Three deaths each were reported from Bengaluru Urban, Belagavi and Udupi, while one each from Chikkaballapura, Chikkamagaluru, Dakshina Kannada, Hassan, Shivamogga and Tumakuru (1). After Bengaluru Urban, Dakshina Kannada reported the highest number of new cases at 193, Udupi 98, Hassan 74 and Mysuru 73.
Bengaluru Urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 12,37,550, followed by Mysuru 1,75,952 and Tumakuru 1,19,220. Among discharges too, Bengaluru Urban tops the list with 12,14,220, followed by Mysuru 1,72,618 and Tumakuru 1,17,475. Cumulatively a total of 4,33,45,881 samples have been tested, of which 1,51,219 were tested on Monday alone
