To review COVID-19 situation and Dasara illumination
Mysuru/Bengaluru: Taking strong note of free and careless movement by citizens without following COVID-19 protocol, Medical Education and Health Minister Dr. K. Sudhakar is likely to visit Mysuru city this evening to review Corona situation in city and district.
Sources close to the Minister told Star of Mysore that Dr. Sudhakar was very shocked to see pictures of large crowd moving inside the city centre to watch Dasara illumination at all important Circles, main roads and traffic junctions without following COVID-19 guidelines.
The attitude of people had caused a big worry for the State Government as Mysuru city and district did not have the adequate number of oxygenated beds in case of outbreak of Corona positive cases. The neighbouring Kerala State did not have any fresh cases during Onam Festival but it started reporting thousands of Corona positive cases only after 10-15 days. Similarly, the number of cases may be less now in Mysuru but it may explode if citizens continue to flout rules post-Dasara celebrations, the sources said. The sources further said that the very purpose of sending the three-member Technical Team to the city well before the start of Dasara festival is defeated if the illumination was not stopped immediately.
Meanwhile, another team that was sent to the city two days back to assess the current situation was ‘shocked’ to see thousands of people on the illuminated streets without face mask and safe distance. This was immediately brought to the notice of the Health Minister who in turn briefed Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa.
The CM is learnt to have asked Dr. Sudhakar to keep a close watch on the situation and take a strong call on daily illumination in due consultation with District Minister S.T. Somashekar.
“With a view to personally inspect the current situation, the Health Minister is coming to Mysuru today. He will review COVID-19 situation and also hold talks with the District Administration to discuss what could be done to deal with the citizens who are risking their lives as well as of others. One of the decisions may be to stop with immediate effect the illumination for the next five days anticipating heavy crowd. A harsh decision cannot be ruled out in the interest of the aam janata,” it is learnt.
The sources pointed out that the City Police have utterly failed to discipline those who do not wear face mask while coming out on streets to watch the illuminated spots. It is not known how many asymptomatic patients or home quarantined Corona positive persons would come out to enjoy Dasara illumination thereby putting the lives of others in risk. The Police Commissioner was strictly told to book cases against people not wearing face mask but it was not known how many cases have been registered so far, the sources pointed out.
This post was published on October 21, 2020 6:44 pm