E-Paper
B’luru civic body buckles up to tackle Covid spread
Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Monday made institutional quarantine mandatory for those coming from Kerala and Maharashtra without carrying a RT-PCR negative test certificate
Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Monday made institutional quarantine mandatory for those coming from Kerala and Maharashtra without carrying a RT-PCR negative test certificate. The move comes after the government on Saturday made negative test report mandatory for those entering Karnataka from these two neighbouring states. “Those coming from these states (Kerala and Maharashtra) must bring an RT-PCR test result. Those who come without it, will be tested and will be kept in quarantine until the results are available. those who will be quarantined pending results, will have to undergo institutional quarantine and not home quarantine,” said BBMP commissioner Gaurav Gupta.
The state on Monday recorded a slight dip in new Covid cases as it logged 1,285 infections as against 1,875 cases on Sunday. The active caseload in the state now stands at 24,021. Bengaluru accounted for 290 new infections, taking its active cases to 8,670. As many as 25 fatalities were reported across the state on Monday, which took the state’s toll to 36,612. Bengaluru’s toll jumped to 15,885, with 5 more deaths being reported on Monday, according to the state health department.
When asked if there are any plans to impose a weekend curfew, Gupta said, “We need to control the spread of the pandemic and make sure the economy returns to normalcy. We need to strike a balance on both fronts. The government will take a call on this (weekend curfew),” he said.
He stressed on the need to follow the night curfew imposed in the city from 10 pm to 5 am. Police cooperation is key to ensure night curfew is followed properly, he added.
The government on Saturday extended the existing restrictions till August 16 and said a decision on night curfew or weekend lockdown will be taken after 15 days after reviewing the progression of the situation. Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday had also informed that stringent border checking and random testing have also begun in the state.
“I have reviewed the Covid status of 8 districts today. Last time the second wave came from Kerala and Maharashtra. Now again, Kerala is witnessing a surge in cases in the last few days. I have instructed to DCs to take care of it. And the testing unit has to be medical infrastructure has to be improved in these districts. Vaccination has to be done,” the chief minister had said following a review meeting on Saturday.
Almost a month after lockdown restrictions in the city were eased, there has been an increase in the total number of Covid-19 cases, deaths, case fatality rate and positivity rate. The number of fresh Covid-19 cases registered in Bengaluru in the week between July 25-31 was 2,988 compared to 2,571 cases the previous week, as per the data released by the BBMP.
Similarly, the number of deaths in Bengaluru was 48 in the week ending July 31 while the number of deaths in the previous week was 36. The positivity rate has increased from 0.62% to 0.72% in the week ending July 31. Meanwhile, the number of tests conducted in Bengaluru over the last two weeks have remained around 413,000 to 415,000 per week. However, the number of admissions in all hospitals in Bengaluru under government quota was 127 for the week ending July 31, lower than 143 in the previous week.
“It not possible to say if this is the third wave or not, but the easing of lockdown will have an impact on the case. The important point here is that the government should not wait and watch but prepare aggressively for the worst-case scenario. The restrictions should be brought back slowly, instead of waiting till the last moment. The expert committee is constantly advising the government,” said a Technical Advisory Committee member, who didn’t want to be named.
