Karnataka logs nearly 7k new cases as 10-day night curfew begins

Bengaluru: Karnataka on Friday logged 6,955 new Covid-19 cases and 36 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 1

Bengaluru: Karnataka on Friday logged 6,955 new Covid-19 cases and 36 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 1.5 million and the toll to 12,849, the health department said on Saturday. Bengaluru, which recorded its highest ever single day spike in Covid- 19 infections on Thursday, witnessed a marginal dip with 4,384 new cases and 29 deaths. On Thursday, the city had reported 5,576 cases and 29 fatalities.

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In a bid to stop this Covid-19 surge in the state, a 10-day night curfew or Corona curfew’ has been imposed in Bengaluru and 6 districts —Mysuru, Mangaluru, Kalaburagi, Bidar, Tumakuru and Udupi-Manipal cities. The night curfew will be enforced from 10 pm till 5am everyday till April 20.

Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant in an order issued ??? said that operation of medical emergency services will be allowed during the curfew. “Operation of factories/companies and establishments working in night shift (will be allowed to travel). However, employees shall reach their work before 10 pm and shall leave only by 5 am,” read the order.

It further allowed movements of vehicles used for essential services, transportation of goods will be allowed. “People arriving or leaving Bengaluru city by bus/train/air may travel to their place of stay or bus stand/railway station/airport through any mode of transport subject to production of travel document,” read the order.

The state government has directed officials concerned to strictly implement the order. It said action will be taken under the Disaster Management Act 2005, IPC and other acts against those found violating it.

The first time Bengaluru breached the four-figure mark in 2021 was on March 19 when the city reported 1037 cases. It took just nine days to touch 2,000 cases, 14 days to breach the 3,000 mark and 18 days to cross 4,000. Bengaluru reported almost 5,000 cases in the last 24 hours on Wednesday.

The total number of active cases in Bengaluru jumped to 44,863 while it went up to 61,653 across Karnataka. While the positivity rate remained around 7.04% across the state, Bengaluru accounted for 63% of all cases reported on Saturday (24 hours of Friday). Bidar, which shares its borders with Maharashtra, reported 215 new infections that take its active case count to 1,626, while Kalaburagi, next to Bidar, recorded 276 new infections, according to government data. 74 new infections were reported from Chikkaballapur, 137 in Dakshina Kannada, 100 in Hassan, 119 in Mandya, 266 in Mysuru, 206 in Tumakuru and 71 in Vijayapura.

Meanwhile, Karnataka government on Saturday made it clear that it would not hold back any examination or stop academic activities due to Covid-19. “The examinations at university-level, including degree, post-graduation, engineering, diploma and all other courses, will be conducted as per schedule. Karnataka deputy chief minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan told reporters in Bengaluru.

Narayan, who holds the higher education portfolio, said the academic activities for the year 2021-22 have already been delayed and there should not be further delay. If delayed, the cycle of course period, test, results, employment, further studies would get cut, he said.

Measures have been taken to ensure the academic activities for the year 2021-22 are not affected, he said. “After the completion of the examinations that are being conducted now, there will be no summer holidays. Functioning of the classes will begin immediately and there will be both offline and online classes,” he said.

Online classes would be started quite early, Narayan said adding: It would be mandatory for students either to attend online or offline classes.

He, however, said the universities and colleges have to follow the standard operating procedure to check the spread of the disease.

According to him, the Integrated Learning Management System (LMS) has already been implemented in view of COVID-19.

“Students are facilitated to learn from the locations wherever they are and 2.70 lakh tablet PCs have been distributed,” Narayan pointed out.