Karnataka Locks Down Nine Covid-19 Affected Districts Until Month End, State To Be Under Section 144 Post Janata Curfew Hours Tonight

On instructions from the Central government to announce a lockdown in all 75 districts across the country that have seen positive cases of the Corona virus, Karnataka announced that nine districts in the state would be under complete lockdown until 31 March.

Having reviewed the status of Covid19 in India, as tweeted by the Ministry of Home affairs, it was decided to suspend movement of all passenger trains, metro trains and inter state passenger transport till 31 March 2020.

The state governments were advised to issue orders to allow only essential services to operate in the 75 districts that have reported confirmed cases or casualties relating to Covid 19 outbreak in the country.

An emergency meeting was held by CM B S Yediyurappa at his Dollars Colony residence, Dhavalagiri, in which it was decided to lock down Dakshina Kannada, Bengaluru, Bengaluru Rural, Kalaburagi, Mysuru, Dharwad, Belagavi, Chikkaballapura and Kodagu districts.

20 cases of the pandemic had been reported in the state until yesterday (21 March). Of the 195 people from Karnataka who arrived in Bengaluru today, six are said to have been symptomatic and have been admitted to the isolated wing of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases. The rest have been admitted to the Akash Medical centre and are under observation.

As reported by Republic earlier today, Dr Devi Shetty, who attended a meeting of the special task force constituted by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to tackle the pandemic in the state at 6 am, said the state will be the first to set up a 2,500-bed hospital exclusively for the treatment of Corona cases along with isolation facilities.

During the lock down, all commercial activities except medical stores, grocery and agriculture services in the nine districts shall be suspended. Factories and industrial establishments in the above nine districts that employ a large number of workers are instructed to have them working in half numbers on alternate days. All inter-district transport services in these nine districts will be suspended until the end of the month.

Apart from the nine under lockdown, the rest of the state too shall have certain services suspended. All public transport shall stay cancelled for tomorrow too, while AC bus services in the state will not be functional through 31 March 2020.

And as soon as the Janata Curfew hours are over today, the state will see Section 144 imposed from 9 pm until midnight to ensure people do not take to the streets after an entire day of staying indoors.