Lockdown 4.0: Karnataka to devise guidelines soon

Bengaluru, May 17: Karnataka government on Sunday extended COVID-19 lockdown in the 2 more days, i.e. till 19th May midnight. The guidelines and norms as followed during coronavirus lockdown 3 will remain in place until further notice.

However, as the Centre extended lockdown till May 31, the state government on Monday will come out with a new set of guidelines for COVID-19 lockdown. The state reported 55 new cases, including a death, taking the total number of infections to 1,147.

According to official sources, the extension for the short period was done as the state government was waiting for lockdown 4.0 guidelines from the centre.

The state will come out with its measures for the next phase of lockdown on Monday, following the centre deciding to extend the lockdown till May 31 with a new set of guidelines, giving states and union territories powers for delineation of Red, Green and Orange Zones as per COVID-19 situation, they said.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has convened a meeting of Ministers and senior officers at 11 am on Monday to discuss the guidelines issued by Government of India for lockdown 4.0 at Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat here, his office said in a release.

The steps to be taken and the guidelines to be issued for the state will be discussed and finalised in this meeting, it said.

The nationwide lockdown was initially imposed from March 25 to April 14, then extended to May 3 and again to May 17 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Meanwhile, a 54-year-old man from Udupi became the 37th CIVID-19 fatality in Karnataka.

The man with cardiac issues was admitted to a private hospital in the district and died due to cardiac arrest on May 14.

He tested positive for COVID 19 on Saturday, the department said in its bulletin.

"As of May 17 evening, cumulatively 1,147 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 37 deaths and 509 discharges," it said.

Out of 600 active cases, 587 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 13 are in Intensive Care Units.

Thirteen patients who have recovered were discharged on Sunday.

Out of the 55 new cases, 22 are from Mandya, 10 from Kalaburagi, six from Hassan, four from Dharwad, three each from Yadgir and Kolar, two each from Dakshina Kannada and Shivamogga, and one each from Udupi, Vijayapura and Bhatkal in Uttar Kannada.

While 40 of these cases are those with inter-state travel history from neighboring Maharashtra, mostly from Mumbai, nine are contacts of patients already tested positive, one each with travel history from Tamil Nadu, with a history of SARI and from containment zone in Kalaburagi, the bulletin said.

Three other patients' contact tracing or investigation is underway.

At least 10 out of these 55 cases are children.

Bengaluru urban district still tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 216 infections, followed by Belagavi at 114 and Kalaburagi 104.

Among discharges too Bengaluru urban tops the list with total of 122, followed by Mysuru 88 and Belagavi 54.

A total of 1,45,398 samples were tested so far, out of which 5,374 were tested on Sunday alone.

So far 1,43,444 samples have reported as negative, of them 5,228 tested negative on Sunday.