Rohini Sindhuri defends night curfew order

Mysore/Mysuru: Nearly 3.8 lakh vaccinations have been administered to Mysureans till now and over 40 private hospitals are giving vaccinations. The number of people inoculated in Mysuru will increase in the coming days, said Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri. 

Participating in Meet-the-Press organised by Mysuru District Journalists Association (MDJA) at Pathrakarthara Bhavan this morning, she said that after Bengaluru, Mysuru has reported highest COVID positive rate and death rate. “The District Administration has slightly shifted its focus towards handling COVID and we are confident of managing the situation,” she added. 

Defending the State Government’s decision to impose ‘COVID night curfew’ in eight select cities across the State including Mysuru from tonight, Rohini Sindhuri said it will check unnecessary movement of people as many could be Coronavirus carriers.

She reminded an incident during Ugadi festival last year when a COVID positive person spread the virus to over 200 people while playing cards with his friends on that day. “It will be difficult to identify who is positive unless they are tested and prevented from moving outside, Our worry is that those persons must not become super-spreaders,” she added. 

Cases may go up

The DC hinted at increase in positive cases in the coming days with COVID-19 second wave sweeping across the country. The situation was under control in January-February this year but the number of cases crossed 150 daily in Mysuru in the last one week indicating the seriousness of pandemic. The cause of worry is a series of holidays next week as more number of tourists are likely to visit tourist places, she added.

The DC said all precautionary measures have been taken to handle the cases and requested private hospitals to reserve 20 percent of beds for COVID-19 patients. 

COVID Care Centres (CCC) have been re-opened and the District Hospital has been kept ready with oxygenated beds. 

As many as 150 Home Guards would be deployed across the city to appeal people to use face mask and maintain social distance in crowded places. 

“It is not possible to deploy Police at every marriage hall to check the attendance. I request citizens to become self-disciplined and assist the District Administration to check the spread of pandemic,” she said.

Confusion resolved

Replying to a question on withdrawal of order issued by her of making RT-PCR negative report compulsory to visit tourist places, cinema halls and other places, DC Rohini Sindhuri said some online media had misquoted her statement as ‘mandatory’ instead of ‘advisory’ and created confusion. 

Once this issue was highlighted in media, senior officers in Bengaluru intervened and resolved the matter and subsequently, she withdrew her order. 

The order on the closure of resorts and home stays issued by Kodagu District Administration was retained since no confusion was created over it, the DC noted. 

MDJA President S.T. Ravikumar, Vice-President Anurag Basavaraj, General Secretary Subramanya and others were present.