Bengaluru on February 16 saw a spike in Covid share at 70 per cent. (Representational)
Bengaluru municipal agency chief Manjunath Prasad has made it very clear if there is any laxity on the part of people in following Covid safety restrictions and if they don't observe social distancing, then imposing a lockdown will be the only option left. He made this statement at a meeting attended by officials, civic body doctors and joint and special commissioners.
The civic agency BBMP has identified some three Covid clusters in the city in recent times - one at a nursing college and two others inside a residential complex.
State Health Minister K Sudhakar, however, has ruled out the possibility of another lockdown in Karnataka. At a press conference, he said, "I have instructed all our commissioners to engage more number of marshals to monitor Covid protocols. There is a marginal rise in positivity rate in the last few days. It's at 1.27 per cent, which is not alarmingly high. At the moment, Karnataka doesn't deserve a lockdown."
The civic agency chief told NDTV on Monday that "we could be in trouble" if COVID-19 safety rules are not followed.
"With a population of 13 million in the city, we are seeing daily rise in cases by 200 to 300. In Kerala and Maharashtra, there is a spike in cases and the concern is we share borders with these two states," Mr Prasad told NDTV.
"A large population in the state are from the bordering areas. People in the city are not following Covid protocols. We have been emphasising that if people don't follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, we are in for trouble in the next few days," he said.
The state government has already put forward standard operating procedures for those traveling into the state from Kerala and Maharashtra to produce a mandatory negative RT-PCR certificate amid the rising Covid cases in these two states.
Bengaluru on February 16 saw a spike in Covid share at 70 per cent. The city saw a dramatic rise in Covid cases over the last five days - the last time it was this high was in March and July last year.
But now with Kerala and Maharashtra reporting a spike - Karnataka shares border with these two states - it has become a cause of worry for officials, given that many travel to work in and out of the state along the border.