The Karnataka Government on Saturday lifted the night curfew which will come into effect from January 31. The government has also done away with the 50% occupancy rules in hotels, bars and pubs. Cinema halls, however, will have to maintain the 50% occupancy guideline. Schools in Bengaluru will also start physical classes from January 31. Karnataka minister BC Nagesh said the departments concerned will come up with SOPs to be followed once the reopening starts.
Swimming pools, gyms, sports complexes will also have to operate with 50% capacity. Government offices can work with 100% attendance of the staff. Temples will also allow prayers with 50% capacity. Protest, sit-ins, religious congregations, political gatherings will not be allowed.
Karnataka has remained one of the worst-hit states in all the first, second and third waves of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the ongoing third wave too, Bengaluru’s single-day Covid tally rose as high as 30,000. On Friday, Karnataka recorded 31,198 fresh cases with Bengaluru contributing 15,199 cases.
As the third wave of the pandemic has now shifted to the southern states, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday conducted a high-level meeting with the health ministers of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
Given the situation, the government has decided to go for more reopening, a week after it became the first state to ease the curbs as it withdrew the weekend curfew. Experts are of the opinion that schools should resume physical classes as students are bearing the brunt of online classes going on for almost two years now, intermittently.
Reports said the government is planning to issue an advisory for reopening schools for students between the age of 15 and 18, as their vaccination against Covid has been going on. Maharashtra has already reopened schools and other states are also mulling to reopen schools in the first week of February.