Sunday Lockdowns Are Back In Bengaluru From July 5, Night Curfew To Start From 8 PM Every Day

With the sudden spurt in COVID-19 cases in Bengaluru, the Karnataka government has decided to reintroduce full lockdown in the state capital on all Sundays, starting from July 5. This was decided after Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa held a review meeting over the coronavirus situation in the state on Saturday.

As per the government order, no activities shall be permitted on Sundays except for essential services and supplies.

BCCL

"Lockdown would be imposed every Sunday, with effect from July 5, until further order. No activities will be permitted except essential services and supplies," said Yediyurappa in a statement after an emergency meeting.

"Commissioner, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been directed to set up more number of wholesale vegetable markets to avoid crowds in large wholesale vegetable markets in the city. Officers were directed to have centralized bed allocation system to speed up hospitalization of COVID-19 patients," reads the statement of CMO.

This comes just a day after Yediyurappa ruled out fresh lockdown in the city, as reviving the economy was equally important.

Additionally, the daily night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am in the morning is altered to 8 pm to 5 am with effect from June 29. It has also decided that all government offices will have a five-day week with Saturday as a holiday.

Amid the spike in the number of new infections, and complaints of the shortage of ambulances, the civic body has also been told to increase the number of ambulances to 250 for rushing COVID patients to hospitals.

"Separate ambulances will be arranged for carrying bodies of COVID victims. Police control room wireless system should be used to identify location and enable quick movement of ambulances to hospitals," said the statement.

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A 10,000 dedicated beds facility for COVID-19 patients will also be readied in Bengaluru by Monday. Marriage halls, hostels, other institutions and railway coaches with beds will be reserved to convert them into COVID care centres in the event of surge in positive or active cases.

Karnataka has so far seen 11,923 COVID-19 cases out of which 4,439 are active, while 7,289 have recovered and 191 have died. As far as Bengaluru is concerned, the city has so far seen 2,531 COVID-19 cases, the highest in the state.

While the cases in Bengaluru are on the rise it is in no way close to other metro cities like Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi which are among the highest in the country.