Karnataka: Experts warn to be cautious amidst the process of unlock 2.0

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has now given more restrictions as 30 more districts in the state witnessed a positivity rate of less than 10%.

About the government’s plan to reopen the colleges, health minister Dr K Sudhakar said, “There should be no confusion about reopening of colleges: we should first ensure proper vaccination of students, teaching and non-teaching staff.”

However, Dr MK Sudarshan, Covid Technical Advisory Committee chairman is of the view that there’s more room for further relaxation of lockdown norms. He added, “We never know how the virus will behave in the future and we must be cautious about emerging mutated variants.” Mysuru was the only district that had a positivity rate above 10% till a week ago. However, it has come down and stayed at that level for a week now. The state’s average positivity rate is 2.6% and only seven districts have the same between 5% and 10%: Mysuru (9.3%), Kodagu (8.1%), Dakshina Kannada (7.3%), Hassan (6.5%), Davanagere (5.9%), Chikkamagaluru (5.4%) and Chamarajanagar (5.2%).

Even though the central guidelines highlight that lockdown restrictions can be eased when the TPT is below 10%, the state chose to do the same when the TPR is below 5%.

On June 21, the government east the restrictions further in 16 districts. Shops and establishments were permitted to operate. Restaurants were allowed to open with 50% capacity. In Bengaluru, buses and Metro trains can run with 50% seating capacity.

Traders want the extension of business hours till 10 pm with night curfew in place. Also, they are against the weekend curfew. Industrialists are appealing to the government to permit factories to function with full capacity.

PC Rao, president of Bengaluru Hoteliers’ Association said, “As Covid cases have come down, we request the government to allow hotels to open till 10 pm along with other trades and public transport.”