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Economy equally important, no further lockdown, says Karnataka CM Yediyurappa
Karnataka has been seeing a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases and on Friday too, 445 new Covid-19 positive cases were recorded taking the total to more than 11,000 cases even as 180 people till now have died due to the infection.
On a day when he met legislators and members of parliament representing Bangalore - cutting across party lines – Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa categorically ruled out a further lockdown despite the growing number of coronavirus cases in both the city and state asserting that ‘economy is equally important.’
Karnataka has been seeing a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases and on Friday too, 445 new Covid-19 positive cases were recorded taking the total to more than 11,000 cases even as 180 people till now have died due to the infection. Bangalore accounted for 144 of the 445 new cases and nearly a third of all active cases are in the state capital.
Some of the key opposition leaders including former CM and JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy have demanded that Bangalore be locked down for ‘at least 20 days’ arguing that ‘economy was not more important than lives’. However, the government made it clear that while select areas may be sealed; there was no question of either a citywide or a statewide lockdown being implemented.
At the meeting with Bangalore’s elected representatives, the government outlined its plan of action with the CM saying that everybody’s cooperation was required to face the pandemic and it was not the time to score political brownie points. The government said that a throat swab testing facility will be set up at every one of the 28 assembly constituencies in Bangalore.
The state government also promised a separate ambulance facility to transport the bodies of Covid-19 victims. The government would also commandeer large marriage halls, hotels and other large spaces to quarantine asymptomatic patients. A nodal officer for each assembly constituency would monitor the handling of the Covid-19 situation.
The state government also said that ayurvedic medicines would be distributed to increase immunity levels as a precautionary measure but it wasn’t clear how and where it would be done.
Meanwhile a 60-year-old woman who had tested positive for Covid-19 along with other family members and was being treated at the government-run KC General Hospital killed herself by hanging in the bathroom in the early hours of Friday.
She was said to have been mentally depressed due to the entire family including her son, daughter-in-law and grandson testing Covid-19 positive. Authorities have registered a case and are investigating.
Also for the first time in more than a century the Chamundi hill temple in Mysore was deserted on the first Friday of the Hindu month of Ashada when every year normally lakhs throng to get a darshan. Authorities had allowed only priests and temple officials to perform the necessary rituals. According to a temple priest, the last time such a drastic step had been taken was during the 1918 plague when visitors were temporarily barred.
