• Technical Advisory Committee warns Govt.
• PM to hold review meeting with CMs on Apr. 8

Bengaluru/Mysuru: COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee has urged the State Government to take preventive measures strictly as COVID-19 second wave is likely to have its serious impact till May end.

In a detailed report submitted to the State Government yesterday, the Committee has urged the Government to impose a complete ban on public functions and initiate strict measures to check the crowding of people in public places. Action should be initiated against those who fail to wear face masks or maintain social distance. The places, from where more number of positive cases was pouring out, must be declared as Containment Zone to restrict movement of people. All possible steps must be taken to check the pandemic reaching rural areas, the report said.

The Panel observed that Corona positive cases were reported from multi-storey buildings, apartments, air-conditioned rooms, bus stops and commercial complexes and the Government must take tough measures in those places too. 

PM’s review on Apr. 8

Meanwhile, Health and Medical Education Minister Dr. K. Sudhakar has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers of Corona-hit States on Apr. 8 at 6.30 pm to review the situation as well as to extend all co-operation from the Union Government to check the spread of pandemic. 

He said some of the recommendations made by the Advisory Committee had been implemented through various Departments. One of them has been reserving 20 percent of beds for COVID-19 patients in Private Hospitals and that had been done. Even steps had been taken to increase the number of ICU beds, he added.

Additional doses

Dr. Sudhakar said Karnataka will be getting an additional 15 lakh doses of vaccine following talks with Union Health Ministry. Of which, 10 lakh doses was for Bengaluru City and 5 lakh doses to Belagavi. This would help vaccinating more number of people. Till yesterday, 46 lakh people had received the jab. The number of Corona positive cases was less due to holidays and it was possible to bend this curve if people follow the safety protocol strictly. The biggest challenge before the Government was to check this contagion and save precious lives. Experts have warned that the number of positive cases may go up to 6,000 in Bengaluru daily if the pandemic was not brought under control, he added.

Citizens give the go-by to COVID-19 norms

Meanwhile, the pandemic is slowly spreading its tentacles across the district, thanks to negligence of citizens. The district has been recording over 100 positive cases daily. Most of the affected are youths. Instead of covering nose and mouth with the mask, citizens down it to the chin level and travel everywhere. They will lift the mask up to the nose if they come across the Cops fearing Rs.250 fine. 

It was very rare to see people wearing mask in  Central Business District (CBD) like K R. Circle, Devaraja Urs Road, Sayyaji Rao Road, city and rural bus stand, markets, hotels and places of worship.