The weekend curfew in Karnataka will be lifted across the state, Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka announced on Friday, January 21. The curfew was in place from 10 pm on Fridays till 5 am on Mondays, and had been put in place on January 8. R Ashoka added that the weekend curfew could be imposed again if hospitalisations are more than 5%. However, the night curfew will continue to be in place. He also added that the 50% occupancy rule will also continue to be in place.
Several politicians, including from within the BJP, also called for the restrictions to be lifted for economic reasons. The decision to lift the weekend curfew was taken at a meeting with expert committee members on Friday, January 21.
Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had said that a suitable decision would be taken based on the views of the experts and the trend of the prevailing third wave of COVID-19. "We will take into consideration how the third wave has unfolded and its future consequences. It's impact on health infrastructure in the coming days to arrive at a decision. We will also discuss the action taken so far and the existing situation and decision would be taken on a scientific basis," he had said.
Registering a steep spike, Karnataka on Thursday, January 20, reported 47,754 new cases of COVID-19, and 29 fatalities, taking the tally to 33.76 lakh and the death toll to 38,515. The state had recorded 41,457 fresh infections on Tuesday and 40,499 on Wednesday.
Of the new cases today, 30,540 were from Bengaluru Urban that saw 13,195 people being discharged and eight virus-related deaths. The total number of active cases across the state is now 2.93 lakh. There were 22,143 discharges, taking the total number of recoveries to 30.45 lakh, a health department bulletin said.
While the positivity rate for the day stood at 18.48%, the case fatality rate (CFR) was 0.06%. Apart from Bengaluru Urban, Hassan recorded the second highest with 1,840 new cases, followed by Tumakuru (1,622), Mandya (1,512) and Mysuru (1,352). Cumulatively, a total of 5.98 crore samples have been tested, of which 2.58 lakh were on Thursday alone.
With IANS and PTI inputs