Karnataka: In the wake of the rising Omicron cases, the new variant of the Corona, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday decided to impose night curfew for 10 days from December 28, between 10 pm to 5 am.
The government has also announced certain restrictions for New Year related parties and gatherings, amid fresh COVID-19 concerns with new clusters emerging and increasing threat of the new Omicron variant of Coronavirus.
This comes after the Chief Minister held a meeting with health experts, senior officials and Cabinet colleagues to take stock of the rising infections on Sunday.
Besides the CM, Revenue Minister R Ashoka, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, Health Minister K Sudhakar, chief secretary Ravi Kumar and other officials of the health and police department were present in the meeting.
Speaking to reporters after a high-level meeting of senior Ministers, officials and the COVID technical advisory committee, chaired by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, he said there is a curb on functions and gatherings for the New Year.
"There will be no functions, parties in the external premises, especially for those celebrating with DJs and large gatherings, they have been completely banned in Karnataka," he said.
The Minister also said that in places like eateries, hotels, pubs and restaurants can have 50 percent of the seating capacity of the premises.
Seven new cases of Omicron variant have been confirmed in Karnataka taking the total cases to 38, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on Saturday.
In a series of tweets, he said, "Seven new cases of Omicron variant have been confirmed in Karnataka till December 25."
According to him, those who tested positive were: a 76-year-old man from Bengaluru, who had travelled from Delhi, a 30-year-old woman from Bengaluru, who came from UAE, a 63-year-old man from Bengaluru who arrived from Zambia and a 54-year-old man from Bengaluru, who was a primary contact of a United Kingdom traveller.
Also read: 12 new cases of Omicron detected in Karnataka; 10 from Bengaluru, 1 from Mangaluru and Mysore each
He added that a 21-year-old man from Bengaluru, who arrived from the UK, a 62-year-old man from Bengaluru, who came from Delhi, and a 15-year-old boy from Bengaluru who travelled from the USA have also been found infected.
Sudhakar said all primary and secondary contacts have been tracked, traced and tested.
The Health Department said except for the 15-year-old, all are vaccinated. Among the infected people, four have symptoms of the new variant of coronavirus.
