Strict guidelines issued for 7-day Bengaluru lockdown to contain Coronavirus

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Monday released a set of strict guidelines to control the largely unregulated movement of people at the capital Bengaluru, including specifying a time for the functioning of services for the week-long lockdown to help contain the surge of Covid-19 cases.

“Shops, including ration shops (PDS), dealing with food, groceries, fruits and vegetables, dairy and milk booths, meat and fish, animal fodder to open only from 5 am to 12 noon," stated the order issued by the state’s chief secretary, T.M.Vijay Bhaskar.

The lockdown in Bengaluru, which starts on Tuesday evening, has been enforced by a reluctant B.S. Yediyurappa-led state government that tried hard to steer clear of taking this extreme step to keep businesses open in its growth engine to help revive the state’s failing finances.

Government offices will function with 50% staff strength, pharmacies, medical services, unrestricted movement of goods and cargo among others, outside containment zones, will be allowed to continue.

Only emergency travel will be allowed in Bengaluru.

“Movement of passenger vehicles to and from Bengaluru area only in case of emergency after obtaining valid passes and strictly adhering to the prevailing SOPs/guidelines issued by Department of Health and Family Welfare," the order specified.

The government exempted a large category of industries to remain open, including food processing, manufacturing of essential goods, drugs, Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Export Oriented Units (EoUs), industrial townships adhering to national directives for COVID- l9 management.

Unlike the earlier phases of the lockdown, the government has made some concessions that allow operations of e-commerce companies, food and other deliveries, on-sight construction and other services to allow some room for businesses to function.

The decision to implement a total lockdown comes as the pandemic situation in Bengaluru continues to slip away from the



administration's control.

Bengaluru reported a record 47 fatalities and 1,315 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, which took the city's virus-related death toll to 322 and number of active cases to 15,052.

The all outnumber of Covid-19 cases in Karnataka penetrated the 41,000-mark as 2738 new cases were accounted for on Monday. The number of dynamic cases in Karnataka remained at 24,572, nearly 30 days in front of projections made by the legislature when it evaluated that the state will have around 25,000 cases by mid-August. A record 73 individuals lost their lives to Covid-19 in the state over the most recent 24 hours, that takes the complete number of fatalities to 761, as indicated by the every day notice of the state wellbeing office. 

Clinical training pastor K.Sudhakar said that about 60-70% of the expired had tried positive for Covid-19 yet didn't really bite the dust because of the infection. 

Deferrals in sharing test outcomes and close non-existent contact following in Bengaluru has vigorously burdened India's innovation capital and its ongoing failings in the fight against the infection. 

Sudhakar said that the legislature has set up stall level panels to follow a hyper-nearby way to deal with distinguishing and seclude contacts.

The source of infection is unknown in over 60% of all cases reported in Karnataka and almost every single case reported from Bengaluru in the last 10 days or so.

The seemingly haphazard efforts on the government's front over hospital bed allotments haven’t helped the situation either with patients dying outside medical facilities or waiting for help.

Though the political opposition has asked that the lockdown be expanded to cover the entire state, it remains critical of the ruling party for failing to provide financial and other assistance to those hits the hardest due to the decision.

Jagadish Shettar, the industries minister on Monday said that there would be a lockdown even in Dharwad, about 430 km from Bengaluru.