The Karnataka government, on Sunday, issued a clarification and stated that no new leave or holiday has been announced for college students by the Higher Education Department, on account of rising COVID-19 cases. This is in the wake of fake messages doing the rounds on social media and messaging apps stating that colleges will be shut in the state for the next two weeks starting from Monday.
“COVID-19 is spreading fast. In the background of this the government has declared Corona Virus an epidemic the department has declaring a holiday of 15 days from March 15, 2021 to March 30, 2021 to students of all government aided and unaided college under the department’s jurisdiction. Moving forward all work in college offices will go on as usual,” said the fake message spread under the name of Department of Collegiate Education in Kannada.
Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Sunday said that no lockdown will be announced right away on account of the rise in cases. But he warned stringent measures might be required if the public does not adopt COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and if case numbers continue to spike.
As reported earlier, the number of COVID-19 cases shot past the 900 mark in Karnataka on Saturday, including one case of the South African strain, taking the total number of cases to just above 9.59 lakh, while one fatality took the death toll to 12,387. Recoveries continued to outnumber new cases, with 992 people being discharged from hospitals, as against 921 infections.
Bengaluru city continued to top the district with the number of cases, accounting for 630 infections, but reported zero fatalities on the day.
Karnataka has been witnessing a rapid rise in cases since March 8, when it logged 436 cases. The state recorded 590 the following day and the figure shot up to 833 on March 12.