Bengaluru: Karnataka is into a 33-hour lockdown which begat at 8 PM last night and will continue till 5 am tomorrow. This is due to the spike in Coronavirus cases across the state with the state registering more than 1000 cases yesterday. Sunday lockdowns and night curfews were in place earlier too, but this time it will be enforced much more stringently.
Yesterday, Bengaluru police commissioner Bhaskar Rao tweeted, “Lockdown starts at 8 pm and concludes at 5 am, Monday in Bangalore city. Respected Citizens, just stay home and don’t ask for exceptions as this is being done in everybody’s interest, heavens won’t fall if you postpone by a day. Please exercise self-discipline and cooperate. Happy Sunday.”
Lockdown starts at 8pm and concludes at 5am,Monday in BangaloreCity.Respected Citizens, just stay home and don’t ask for exceptions as this is being done in everybody’s interest,heavens won’t fall if you postpone by a day. Please ExcercisSelf Discipline n Cooperate. Happy Sunday.
— Bhaskar Rao IPS (@deepolice12) July 4, 2020
From Monday, officials said, night curfew will start from 8 pm instead of 9 pm, but the end time of 5 am will remain across the state.
All government offices will have a five-day week with Saturday as a holiday.
Karnataka on Saturday reported its biggest single-day spike of 1,839 new COVID-19 cases and 42 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections in the state to 21,549 and the deaths to 335, the Health department said. Of these, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 1,172 cases in the last 24 hours. There is now a centralized bed allocation system in place to speed up the hospitalization of COVID-19 patients. Other measures to cope with the crisis is an increase to 250 in the number of ambulances. Separate ambulances are also being arranged to carry bodies of coronavirus victims. Besides, these Stadiums, hostels, and Wedding halls will be converted to COVID Centers.
The joint commissioners of eight regions are being given additional responsibilities, and Karnataka Administrative Service or KAS officers will help them to take off the burden from the commissioner and the central office of the BBMP.
The central government has deployed 15 teams, consisting of public health experts, epidemiologists, and other specialists, to support states in the battle to contain a seemingly relentless wave of COVID-19 infections, Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan was informed during the 17th Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting held Saturday afternoon. India has recorded over 6.73 lakh confirmed cases since the outbreak began in China in December last year.
