No lockdown, don't pay heed to rumours, says Karnataka CM Bommai

Reassuring the people that there is no proposal to impose lockdown in Karnataka, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday appealed not to pay heed to rumours in this regard.

Speaking to the media here in Bengaluru, he reiterated, "There is no question of imposing the lockdown now. Normal life should go on."

However, he wanted the people to strictly follow the COVID-19 norms in public places. Institutions too need to function responsibly by adhering to the norms at programmes conducted by them.

The Chief Minister said, "the state government is keeping strict vigil against the new COVID variant 'Omicron'. Meanwhile, precautions against the Delta variant too is being tightened. The government is tackling the issue on two fronts. Test swab samples in suspicious cases had been sent to National Center For Biological Sciences (NCBS) for Genome sequencing to ascertain the exact variant. International passengers are being strictly screened at airports. Those who were in contact with them are also being traced and tested."

"The state government has issued the guidelines for setting up clusters where a spurt in the cases had been reported. Those in the clusters are being tested again 7 days after they get a positive report of the first test. About 4000 persons have been tested at SDM college in Dharwad. Similar tests are on at clusters in Mysuru, Hassan and Anekal in Bengaluru", Bommai said.

Karnataka reported 315 new COVID-19 cases and two deaths in the past 24 hours.