K’taka CM calls emergency meeting over Covid; decision on more curbs on April 20
Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday said that the night curfew, imposed amid a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases, is likely to be continued and possibly extended in the eight districts, including Bengaluru.
As for other curbs in the state, “on April 20, we will sit again and decide,” Yediyurappa said after holding an emergency meeting at his Bengaluru residence.
Following an emergency meeting at his residence, Yediyurappa said, “We will continue this (night curfew)...and are thinking which other districts it can be extended to.” He said decisions will be taken after consulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The meeting came against the backdrop of the health crisis in Karnataka since March.
The situation has spiralled out of control since April in which Bengaluru recorded more than double the numbers of cases it witnessed during the first wave of the outbreak last year.
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It has recorded nearly 50,000 new cases in the last one week, government data shows. More worrying is the positivity rate that is hovering around the 10% mark consistently for at least one week now.
India’s IT capital has also seen hospital bed occupancy of over 70% and nearly 100% in intensive care units (ICU) beds, data from the civic body, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), shows.
Experts from the Technical Advisory Committee and the government have stated that Covid-19 numbers could peak in the first week of May.
Bengaluru breached the five-figure mark for the first time on Thursday with 10,497 cases in a single-day, taking its active case count to 71,827. The city also accounted for 30 of the 66 fatalities reported across the state on Thursday.
Karnataka reported 14,738 infections in the 24 hours on Wednesday. The active case count of Karnataka inched towards the 100,000 mark and currently stands at 96,561.