COVID-19 lockdown in Karnataka has been extended until June 14
The ongoing state-wide lockdown in Karnataka due to the coronavirus has been extended by a week, until June 14, News18 reports. The decision has been taken in light of the high positivity and fatality rates, even though the overall caseload in the state has been declining. Positivity rate in Karnataka is still above 10%. Here are more details on this.
The state government is unlikely to change restrictions with respect to intra-district and inter-district movement. Daily timings for essential goods shops - 6 am to 10 am - are also likely to remain the same, though there are calls to extend that until 2 pm. It is expected the government will allow agricultural traders to resume business so that farmers can sell their produce.
Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and a few Ministers were earlier planning to begin a phased reopening of the southern state after June 7. However, that stance was changed after health experts stressed that restrictions should continue for at least another week as daily positivity rate was still hovering around 15%. Experts said the lockdown should continue until the positivity rate comes down to 5%.
The government is also worried about the spread of infection in rural areas. "The positivity rate has not come down completely. It has to come to below 10%, and in rural areas the cases are about 22,000-23,000, it has to go below 10,000...Only then, we will be able to manage the health infrastructure," State Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai had said earlier in the day.
In India's second wave of the coronavirus, daily cases in Karnataka peaked at nearly 50,000 early last month. Even though the overall caseload has since come down, the positivity rate still remains worrisome - above 11 percent. In the past 24 hours, 16,387 new cases and 463 deaths were reported in the state, taking the tally to 26.35 lakh and death toll past 30,000.
India faced the world's worst coronavirus outbreak over the past couple of months, reporting lakhs of cases and thousands of deaths each day. Daily cases in India had peaked at 4,14,000 nearly a month ago. The situation is finally improving and states/UTs like Delhi have begun a reopening process. In the past 24 hours, India logged 1.34 lakh new COVID-19 cases and 2,800 deaths.
