Karnataka recommended the establishment of a nationwide testing guidelines
The BJP government in Karnataka led by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa made several points during an interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other chief ministers. In a bid to increase economic activity, Karnataka wants the red, orange and green zone classification scrapped.
"Only containment zones have to be identified and strictly cordoned. 50 to 100 meters around known clusters may be declared as containment zones. Commercial activities including public transport to be allowed in Non-Containment Zones," the state government said in a statement.
The state government recommended against domestic and international travel at least till the end of May. It said there should be 14-day quarantine for anyone reaching India from abroad.
Interstate travellers should also be placed under compulsory institutional quarantine and tested, the state said. All interstate travellers should be issued a health clearance certificate at the place of origin of journey by local authorities or hospital. Those without a health clearance certificate should be placed under compulsory quarantine, it said.
Karnataka wants to resume all economic activities in stand-alone establishments and continue restrictions on malls, cinema halls, dining facilities and establishments with centrally controlled air conditioning.
The state said its COVID-19 cases were relatively low compared with other states because of its contact tracing, tracking, testing and treating approach. The state spoke of its increased testing facilities.
"Our government has increased the number of testing facilities on war footing - there were only 2 labs with a testing capacity of about 300 per day in February and today we have 35 labs with a testing capacity exceeding 6,000 tests per day. Our state recently crossed the 1 lakh tests milestone. We are on track to set up 60 labs by this month end," the Karnataka government said in the statement.
Over 58 lakh people have downloaded the Aarogya Setu app in Karnataka, it said. "COVID-19 is unfortunately becoming a stigma in the minds of the people and it is our collective responsibility to educate the people that coronavirus is just like any other virus or flu, but it spreads more and effects people with co morbidity, who need to be protected," it said.
The state recommended the establishment of a nationwide testing guideline to determine minimum number of tests per million to be carried out in each state. "We must only test those with symptoms and need hospitalization," the state said.
The Karnataka government said, "We must make Tele-Medicine the new protocol to approach this Pandemic. Only those with severe Symptoms should be hospitalized."
And Karnataka believes special care needs to be taken of the elderly and the young. "We must advise persons above 60 years and persons below 10 years to remain indoors and to stay protected. Especially people with comorbidity have to protected with utmost care," the release said.