Lockdown in Karnataka soon? CM Basavaraj Bommai to meet with experts today

Bengaluru, Jan 04: Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai will hold a high level meeting with experts today in view of rising cases of Covid and the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

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

He said that as the speed of infection is higher, expert opinion will be sought to manage the situation in the state. The opinion of the expert committee will be discussed and appropriate decisions will be taken in the cabinet meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday, he said.

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

"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.

Karnataka has been witnessing a surge in COVID cases over the last five days, with daily figures crossing the 1,000 mark. This even as 10 more cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus were detected in Karnataka on Sunday, taking the state's tally to 76.