CM Bommai likely to announce restrictions to control Omicron

The state cabinet is likely to decide on more containment measures to control the spread of the virus on Thursday after consulting experts on Tuesday evening.

Bengaluru: As ten more cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus have been detected in Karnataka, on Monday, taking the state's Omicron tally to 76 thus the state cabinet is likely to decide on more containment measures to control the spread of the virus on Thursday after consulting experts on Tuesday evening.

"We are monitoring both COVID and Omicron situation, it is spreading at a very fast phase in the country, in the state, and in neighboring states, so we need to have a discussion with experts. In this regard I will have a discussion with experts tomorrow evening," Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

The government has already imposed containment measures like night curfew from 10 PM to 5 AM, from December 28 till January 7 morning, to control the spread of the virus.

"Having the experience of managing the earlier two waves, we have already asked the experts to recommend containment measures, with limited impact on daily lives of the people," he further said, calling on the citizens to show self-control by following the COVID guidelines.

Earlier, the technical advisory committee members have pointed out two key factors- a lockdown would be inevitable when a state's weekly positivity rate of 5 percent gets passed and lockdown when 40 percent of the state's total ICU and oxygen beds get exhausted.

The state is also getting ready for colour code-based restrictions such as Yellow, Orange, Red.

The yellow alert will be announced if the infection percentage is lower than 1. There would be restrictions such as wearing masks in a public place, the social distance, enforcement of sanitizer use, and social events would be limited to 200 to 300 people along with only 100 to 200 people would be allowed to attend the funeral.

The movements of people are permitted in malls, shopping complexes, cinemas, auditoriums, schools, colleges, restaurants, salons, and gym centers, the expert committee report says.

The Orange Alert would be announced if the infection percentage is between 1 to 2%. It is depicted as an alarm bell. In order to reduce the movements of people in the malls, shopping complexes should be allowed to open from 6 am to 1 pm.

The two-dose vaccine rules would be strictly enforced when the number of infected people exceeds 2% of the total population and symbolizes a red alert. When the situation reaches Red it is advised to curtail commercial activities through weekend curfew, night curfew.