Weekend Curbs Lifted In Karnataka, Night Curfew To Continue

The night curfew will go on as usual and in case there is a rise in cases or hospitalisation in the state, the weekend curfew will be brought into place again

Weekend Curbs Lifted In Karnataka, Night Curfew To Continue (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: Amid a decline in daily Covid cases in Karnataka over the last few days, the state government on Friday has decided to lift the weekend curfew with immediate effect.

However, the night curfew will go on as usual and in case there is a rise in cases or hospitalisation in the state, the weekend curfew will be brought into place again.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had on Wednesday hinted at lifting the weekend curfew in the light of a significant drop in Covid cases and low hospitalization due to the non-severity of the third wave. He had said that the people are of the opinion that this wave could be contained through strict adherence to Covid protocols and that there was no need of restrictions.

The state government had imposed the night curfew from December 28 and the weekend curfew from January 7 after the daily Covid cases surged in the first week of January. According to an earlier decision, the weekend curfew was to end on January 19.

The decision of doing away with the weekend curfew comes amid a mounting pressure on the government from the trader and business community whose livelihoods have been affected by the restrictions.  A delegation of hoteliers met the Chief Minister last week, urging that the night curfew time to be pushed by an hour, that is 11pm instead of 10pm.

Meanwhile, Karnataka on Thursday logged 47,754 new Covid cases taking the state's positivity rate to 18.48%. In addition to this, 29 more people succumbed to the virus in the same time period.