COVID-19: Karnataka bars non-essential services in 9 districts

 The Karnataka government on Monday barred non-essential services in nine districts with certain exceptions to ensure social distancing and isolation to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The restrictions will apply to revenue districts of Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Kalaburagi, Chikballapur, Mysuru, Madhugiri, Dharwad, Mangaluru and Belagavi from 12 am on Monday to 12 am on April 1.

"To adopt strict social distancing and isolation measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, the government of Karnataka in exercise of the powers conferred under The Karnataka Epidemic Diseases COVID-19 Regulations 2020 has imposed the following restrictions," said an official statement.

"All shops, commercial establishments, workshops and godowns dealing with non-essential services shall close operations subject to the exceptions mentioned below," said the statement.

According to the new rules, all labour intensive industries shall work at 50 per cent of their strength on rotation basis to ensure social distancing.

No worker shall be removed from the job and the industries have been advised to sanction paid leave during these days.

All IT and BT companies should ensure work from home, except when it is not feasible in case of mission critical and essential services.

All air-conditioned buses of the state road transport corporation and private buses shall stop plying.

Similarly, all inter-state and inter-district services should also be stopped in the nine districts.

However, the following essential services are exempt from these rules, including food, ration shops, milk, vegetables, groceries, meat, fish, food markets, medical shops and petrol bunks.

Transport of all goods, fire and police services, government offices, urban local bodies and Panchayat Raj institutions' offices, postal services, electricity, water and municipal services, bank ATMs and telecom services shall be open and allowed to conduct business.

Likewise, home delivery of food, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, takeaways from restaurants, agriculture, sericulture, horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries related shops and markets, canteen services provided by the government and local bodies will be open for business.

The government has authorized district deputy commissioners to relax the imposed conditions whenever needed to reduce hardships for people.

"All the financial requirements for the effective and successful mitigation of the COVID-19 infection shall be incurred from SDRF funds available with Deputy Commissioners," said the statement.

Meanwhile, the health department has asked all the people who attended Mir Mukhtiar Ali musical concert on March 12 at the Chowdaiah Memorial Hall to inform helpline numbers 104, 080-46848600 and 080-66692000 voluntarily.

Intensifying the state's fight against the virus, Health Minister B. Sriramulu said health officials conducted a videoconference with Scanvirus company officials.

"Our government has already taken measures to purchase 10 lakh masks, and 5 lakh units of personal protective equipment (PPE)," tweeted Sriramulu.

He said the health ministry is working tirelessly to tackle coronavirus breakout and requested people to take adequate precautions. IANS