Restrictions Continue For Businesses In Karnataka's Plan For Partial Lifting Of Lockdown

The Karnataka government has drawn up a plan to pave the way for essential and important activities to resume after April 20, following the partial lifting of the extended lockdown over the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the points that was discussed during a meeting of state ministers today was to allow one-third of the workforce of IT and biotechnology firms to go to their offices once again.

The employees of IT, biotechnology and other businesses should come to offices in hired buses, the state government said. But the government said it wanted companies to still encourage their employees to work from home.

"Incident commanders" helped by the police and health officials will look after every containment zone. They will be responsible for monitoring movement and giving basic amenities in their areas. The "incident commander" will have magisterial power, the government said.

Cars with passes can also run, but no new passes will be issued.

The government said construction activities will be allowed but the workers should stay at the project sites. No new shops will be allowed to open and malls and showrooms will remain closed.

No one can go from one district to another. Ramanagar, Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts will be considered as one district only for movement of industrial workers, the government said.

At least 33 per cent workforce of government departments will be allowed to work and they should come in contract buses hired exclusively for them. Wearing masks is mandatory.

Karnataka has reported 384 cases of COVID-19 and 14 deaths. The number of coronavirus cases in India climbed to 14,792, which includes 488 deaths, the Health Ministry said today, adding that 957 new cases and 43 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

The doubling rate of COVID-19 cases has dropped to 6.2 days from three days before a countrywide lockdown was imposed, the government said on Friday.

The decline is the result of increased testing, including that of patients suffering from SARI (severe acute respiratory illness) and ILI (influenza-like illness), the government added.