Karnataka bars entry of people from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu till 31 May

Bengaluru, May 18: Karnataka has announced major relaxations across the state by allowing train, bus and taxi services to resume from tomorrow.

While announcing the relaxations for the lockdown 4.0 period, the Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, said that people from four states - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala - will not be allowed entry into the state will May 31.

The Karnataka CM also said, ''Sundays will be observed as complete lockdown days with the provision of essential services only. Communal parks will be opened from Tuesday and night curfew will continue across the state from 7 pm to 7 am.''

There will be strict lockdown measures in containment zones and economic activities will be permitted in other areas. Only essential services will be allowed in the containment areas within red zones.

Yediyurappa further announced that all shops, except those in containment zones, will be allowed to open and passenger trains will run within the state.

Four state transport corporation buses and the private buses have been allowed to operate with 30 passengers per bus capacity and wearing of face masks and maintaining physical distancing are mandatory.

The services will resume with strict social distancing norms and guidelines in place as suggested by the Union Home Ministry on May 17.

Those who will breach the social distancing norms will face strict action, an official said.

Yediyurappa had 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, his office said in a release.

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.

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

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