The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) clarified that it is not mandatory for all passengers to carry a negative RT-PCR negative certificate to come to Bengaluru. It is still mandatory for passengers coming from Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra and Kerala to carry a negative RT-PCR test. The order that was issued by the Karnataka government on March 22 remains valid.
“We had proposed to make RT-PCR test reports mandatory for passengers from all States coming into Bengaluru. But the State government has not approved the proposal,” said BBMP commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad as reported in The Hindu.
The confusion arose after Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar told in a press conference on March 25, that all passengers from any other state coming to Bengaluru had to carry a negative RP-PCR certificate to enter the city.
On Wednesday, Bengaluru reported a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 patients, recording a total of 2928 positive cases, nearly a thousand more cases than Tuesday. Also, 18 deaths were recorded in Bengaluru on the same day.
A total of 19,613 active cases and 31 containment zones were recorded in the city on Wednesday. Karnataka recorded a huge one day spike to 4,225 cases crossing the 4,000 cases mark for the first time in 2021 and now has 28,248 active cases. Other districts that recorded a high number of positive cases were Kalaburagi (137), Tumkur (138) and Mysuru (142).
A total of 37,20,850 vaccine doses have been administered in the state including the three categories of front line workers, senior citizens (age 60+), and people aged 45-59 who have comorbidities. The third phase of the vaccination will begin from Thursday where the vaccination will be extended to everyone above the age of 45 and not just comorbidities.