Karnataka reimposes night curfew, bans movement of people from 10pm to 5am

The curfew will be in effect for an initial period of 10 days, from December 28. The decision will be reviewed after the said period, the state government said.

Karnataka on Sunday became the latest state to announce the return of night curfew in view of a fresh surge in Covid-19 cases, including those due to the Omicron variant. In a meeting chaired by chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, the state government decided that starting December 28, for a period of 10 days, there will be a ban on movement of people, from 10pm to 5am.

A deserted look of Bengaluru's Church Street during April's night curfew (PTI)

The Karnataka government further informed it will monitor the situation for these 10 days, after which, it said, the decision will be reviewed. For the upcoming New Year festivities, it reiterated restrictions announced earlier, i.e. complete prohibition on public celebrations, only 50 per cent occupancy in private spaces such as hotels, pubs, restaurants, and ban on special features such as disc-jockeying (DJ) events.

The meeting also decided to implement decisions announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a surprise address to the nation last night. In his speech, PM Modi announced that from January 3, those in the age group of 15-18 will also be covered under the national Covid-19 vaccination drive, which began on January 16 this year, and for which, at present, only adults (18 years and above) are eligible.

The Prime Minister also announced ‘precautionary’ or booster shots, starting January 10, for health care workers, frontline workers and senior citizens having co-morbidities.

Karnataka, meanwhile, has seen 31 out of at least 422 Omicron cases reported nationally thus far. Of the southern state's Omicron caseload, seven were confirmed on Saturday. Its tally is the seventh-highest in the country, after Maharashtra (108), Delhi (79), Gujarat (43), Telangana (41), Kerala (38) and Tamil Nadu (34).

As many as 13 states, including Karnataka, and four Union territories have, thus far, reported infections of this latest variant of the coronavirus.

On December 25, the state also detected 270 fresh Covid-19 cases and four related fatalities. Its overall tally stands at 3,004,239 including 2,958,630 recoveries, 38,309 fatalities and 7271 active patients.