Karnataka lockdown should continue till positivity rate falls below 5%: Expert panel

The committee prepared a report which suggested that the lockdown should continue for two more weeks after June 7.
Bengaluru lockdown
Bengaluru lockdown
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Karnataka's COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on Monday recommended that the lockdown in place in the state should continue until the test positivity rate falls below 5%. The committee prepared a report in which it suggested that the lockdown should continue for two more weeks after June 7 until the daily new cases fall below 5,000 and case fatality rate falls below 1%. The committee unanimously drafted the recommendations and its chairman MK Sudarshan said that the committee is 'placing lives before livelihoods'. The committee submitted its recommendations to the Karnataka government. 

Speaking to the Times of India, Sudarshan said that the test positivity rate of 5% is the safest threshold and it was decided after discussions with public health, virology and epidemiology experts. He said that if the positivity rate in the state is not below 5% by June 7, the lockdown restrictions should be extended and reviewed after a week. The daily COVID-19 case count in Karnataka fell to less than 20,000 in the state and to less than 5,000 in Bengaluru Urban district on Monday with around 1.2 lakh to 1.3 lakh tests being conducted everyday. The test positivity rate recorded on Monday was 13.57% and the case fatality rate was 2.47%.

Lockdown restrictions in Karnataka were announced from April 27 and extended twice in May. Currently, people can move freely for essentials from 6-10 am and restaurants are open only for takeaways and deliveries. Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka said on Monday that tough measures like a lockdown should continue as long as a city like Bengaluru registers more than 500 COVID-19 cases daily.

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