Omicron scare: Karnataka CM dismisses lockdown rumours, urges people to follow COVID norms

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday appealed to people not to pay attention to lockdown rumours, reassuring m that re is no proposal to impose any lockdown in state. He also informed that his government is keeping strict vigil against new COVID variant Omicron.

While speaking to reporters, CM Bommai said, "re is no question of imposing lockdown now. Normal life should go on. state government is keeping strict vigil against new COVID variant 'Omicron'. Meanwhile, precautions against Delta variant too is being tightened. government is tackling issue on two fronts. Test swab samples in suspicious cases h been sent to National Center For Biological Sciences (NCBS) for Genome sequencing to ascertain exact variant. International passengers are being strictly screened at airports. Those who were in contact with m are also being traced and tested."

" state government has issued guidelines for setting up clusters where a spurt in cases h been reported. Those in clusters are being tested again 7 days after y get a positive report of first test. About 4000 persons have been tested at SDM college in Dharw. Similar tests are on at clusters in Mysuru, Hassan and Anekal in Bengaluru", Karnataka CM ded. 

COVID-19 in Karnataka

Meanwhile, Karnataka logged 291 new COVID-19 cases and eight deaths on Tuesday, taking total number of infections to 29,96,148 and toll to 38,211. day also saw 745 discharges, taking total number of recoveries in state so far to 29,51,492, a health department bulletin said. Bengaluru Urban continued to top list in number of cases (185), as city saw 654 discharges and 6 deaths. total number of active cases is now 6,416. While positivity rate for day stood at 0.47 per cent, Case Fatality Rate (CFR) was 2.74 per cent. Behind Bengaluru Urban in number of deaths was Bidar and Mysuru, with one each.

Among districts where new cases were reported, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 185, Mysuru 28, Dakshina Kanna 19, Dharw 9, followed by ors. Bengaluru Urban district heed list of positive cases with a total of 12,56,452, followed by Mysuru 1,79,771 and Tumakuru 1,21,095.

(With Agency Inputs)

Image: @bsbommai (Twitter)