Karnataka lockdown news: No statewide plan to impose curbs, districts to take on COVID-19 management

The Karnataka government went ahead and decided to hand over the delegating powers to manage COVID-19 to the district authorities instead of taking a nationwide call on Saturday (August 14) in a meeting which was chaired by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai with experts, ministerial colleagues and officers. 

The government also decided not to open schools in districts that are recording a positivity rate of two per cent or more. This came after the Technical Advisory Committee was of the opinion that the second wave of COVID-19 was not over yet. 

While addressing the media, CM Basavaraj Bommai said, "We cannot formulate a statewide COVID-19 management plan. It should be district-specific."

Bommai also stated that the experts have expressed concern regarding the positivity rate since it has not been dipping and is oscillating between 1,600 to 1,800 cases per day. He said that the cases towards the end of the first wave went down up to 300 but this is not the case with the second wave. "We have to prevent COVID-19 because this disease is still around. Since the cases are still remaining between 1,600 and 1,800, we need to be careful," he said.

Bengaluru | Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai held a COVID19 review meeting today pic.twitter.com/UlFvnjoDk5

— ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2021

Major key points from Karanataka CM's meeting on COVID-19: 

- Vaccination and testing to increase in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Mysuru, Hassan, Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga and Bengaluru Rural.

- Villages that are up to 10 kilometres inside Kerala and Maharashtra borders need to have increased testing and vaccination since these are the villages that are experiencing a spike in cases. 

- Places like Bengaluru, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Ballari, Bidar, Koppal, Haveri, Vijayapura, Tumakuru and Chikkamagaluru also require increased testing to determine the positivity rate.

- Bengaluru, Mysuru, Shivamogga, Kalaburagi and Belagavi to have genome labs set up in the next three weeks to track new variants.

According to the Chief Minister, as of Saturday, four crore people have been vaccinated in the state. As of now, the state has 15 lakh vaccines and it expects to receive at least 30 lakh more vaccines by the end of this month. "We are demanding more vaccines. Next week I am going to meet the Union health minister. We are getting 65 lakh vials every month, which should be increased to one crore. If that arrives, we can vaccinate all the districts," Bommai said.