Amid Omicron threat, 3,000 hospital beds identified in Bengaluru: BBMP

Karnataka govt places fresh Covid curbs after reports of two Omicron cases

The Karnataka government on Friday came out with a set of fresh guidelines for Covid after two cases of the Omicron variant were reported in the state the previous day. According to the guidelines, entry to malls and cinema halls will be allowed only for those who are fully vaccinated.

The government circular said that parents of students (aged below 18) going to schools and colleges should be mandatorily vaccinated with both doses of Covid vaccine. It emphasised that all gatherings, meetings and conferences should strictly limit the number of participants to 500 people only.

Gaurav Gupta, Chief Commissioner, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, told Business Standard that around 3,000 hospital beds have been identified in the state capital as preparedness. “At present, Madame Bowring hospital is the preferred facility for dealing with Omicron cases. I would like to highlight that only 270 to 300 beds are occupied in Bengaluru for Covid at this point,” he added.

Earlier in the day, reports said that the Karnataka health department is worried over 10 South African nationals who have gone untraceable in Bengaluru. Gupta clarified that it is part of the standard Covid procedure to trace all international travelers going back a month.

Out of two cases of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus that have been detected in the state, one is a South African national who has left the country after testing negative, while the other is a local person, a doctor with no travel history, the Karnataka government said on Thursday.

Five contacts of the Doctor have also tested positive and their samples have been sent for genomic sequencing.

According to officials, both the persons who have tested positive for Omicron in Bengaluru city were vaccinated with two doses of Covid vaccine.

The Union Health Ministry on Thursday reported that the number of active Covid cases in Karnataka had risen by 169 to 6,772. There were 363 new cases and the number of deaths reported were at 3.