Karnataka extended the COVID-19 lockdown in 11 districts with high test positivity rate, while relaxing the guidelines in the remaining 20 districts from June 14.
Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa who held a meeting with the COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee on Thursday, decided to relax certain norms based on its recommendations.
While there will be no change in the existing guidelines for Chickmagalur, Shivamogga, Davanagere, Mysuru, Chamarajanagara, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Bengaluru Rural, Mandya, Belagavi and Kodagu districts, the deputy commissioners have been entrusted with imposing stringent measures in consultation with the district in-charge ministers to contain the spread of the virus.
Across the remaining 20 districts including Bengaluru Urban, which have a low test positivity rate (below 10 per cent), a few restrictions will be lifted from June 14 to June 21. All industries will now be allowed to operate with 50 per cent staff, while garment factories can operate with only 30 per cent of their employee strength.
The timing for shopping for essential goods, which was from 6am to 10am, has now been extended till 2pm. Street vendors will also be free to transact business from 6am to 2pm.
All construction activities can be resumed, and shops trading in cement and steel will be allowed to remain open. The public parks will be open from 5am to 10am.
The number of passengers in autorickshaw and taxis has been restricted to two. However, the public transport services like BMTC, KSRTC and Bengaluru Metro will not be resumed immediately.
A COVID-19 curfew will be in place every day from 7pm to 5am and a weekend curfew will be enforced from Friday 7pm to Monday 5am.
The statewide lockdown was imposed on April 27 when the test positivity rate was hovering around 30-40 per cent. However, by June 11, the test positivity rate in the state had reduced to 6.58 per cent and in Bengaluru, the TPR is 3.34 per cent. The state has 2.10 lakh active cases.
