"Heavens Won't Fall": Bengaluru Police Chief On 33-Hour Lockdown

A 33-hour lockdown has been imposed in Bengaluru from 8 pm on Saturday till 5 am on Monday due to the rising number of coronavirus cases being reported in the city. Earlier, Karnataka had announced Sunday lockdowns starting from today. Bengaluru has observed Sunday lockdown earlier too, but this time, it's more stringent.

Taking to Twitter, Bengaluru police commissioner Bhaskar Rao tweeted, "Lockdown starts at 8 pm and concludes at 5 am, Monday in Bangalore city. Respected Citizens, just stay home and don't ask for exceptions as this is being done in everybody's interest, heavens won't fall if you postpone by a day. Please exercise self-discipline and cooperate. Happy Sunday."

Lockdown starts at 8pm and concludes at 5am,Monday in BangaloreCity.Respected Citizens, just stay home and don't ask for exceptions as this is being done in everybody's interest,heavens won't fall if you postpone by a day. Please ExcercisSelf Discipline n Cooperate. Happy Sunday.

— Bhaskar Rao IPS (@deepolice12) July 4, 2020

From Monday, officials said, night curfew will start from 8 pm instead of 9 pm, but the end time of 5 am will remain across the state. 

All government offices will have a five-day week with Saturday as holiday.

Karnataka on Saturday reported its biggest single-day spike of 1,839 new COVID-19 cases and 42 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections in the state to 21,549 and the deaths to 335, the Health department said. Of these, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 1,172 cases in the last 24 hours.

The state government asked officers to have a centralised bed allocation system to speed up hospitalisation of COVID-19 patients.

The number of ambulances to carry patients will be raised to 250; separate ambulances will be arranged to carry bodies of coronavirus victims.

The joint commissioners of eight regions will be given additional responsibilities, and Karnataka Administrative Service or KAS officers will help them to take off burden from the commissioner and the central office of the BBMP.

Chief Minister BS Yediuyurappa asked the authorities to reserve wedding halls, hostels and other institutions in Bengaluru to be converted into COVID-19 care centres and to use railway coaches with beds as additional facilities.

The centre has deployed 15 teams, consisting of public health experts, epidemiologists and other specialists, to support states in the battle to contain a seemingly relentless wave of COVID-19 infections, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan was informed during the 17th Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting held Saturday afternoon.

India has recorded over 6.73 lakh confirmed cases since the outbreak began in China in December last year.