Karnataka Health and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar.Karnataka Bengaluru Coronavirus News March 25 Highlights: Beginning April 1, everyone entering Bengaluru from outside Karnataka will need to furnish a negative RT-PCR Covid-19 test report, Health and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar announced on Thursday.
“With cases likely to increase further in the coming days and after observing that over 60 per cent of cases in Bengaluru comprise interstate travelers, everyone will have to possess an RT-PCR negative report from April 1,” Sudhakar said. He added that the rule will be applicable to those, including permanent residents of the city, who arrive in the city from any place outside Karnataka.
To date, the same was demanded only from people entering Karnataka from Maharashtra, Kerala, and Punjab.
Follow Karnataka Bengaluru Coronavirus March 26 Live Updates
Bengaluru Urban reported 1623 new cases of Covid-19 out of the total 2523 from across the state on Thursday. Meanwhile, the daily positivity rate rose further to 2.32 per cent while over 1.08 lakh samples were tested in the last 24 hours.
Other districts that reported most cases are Udupi (145), Kalaburagi (100), Mysuru (89), and Bidar (78). At the same time, 1192 others recovered from the infection while ten more deaths in the last few days were linked to the pandemic on March 25.
Former Union Oil Minister and senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily on Thursday said “distortions” in the GST Act will have to be removed before the government considers to bring petrol and diesel under the regime.
He said states should be adequately compensated for revenue loss in the event of petrol and diesel being brought under the GST regime.
The former Karnataka Chief Minister alleged “distortions” in the GST Act in the context of “procedures, unnecessary taxation and tax rates putting additional burden on traders, their harassment and corruption”.
Read more
With the successful touchdown of an IndiGo flight from Lucknow at the refurbished north runway on Thursday, the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru became the first in south India to have operational parallel runways.
It also marked the resumption of flight operations from the north runway, which was closed for renovation and upgrades in June 2020.
Read more
Beginning April 1, everyone entering Bengaluru from outside Karnataka will need to furnish a negative RT-PCR Covid-19 test report, Health and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar announced on Thursday.
"With cases likely to increase further in the coming days and after observing that over 60 per cent of cases in Bengaluru comprise interstate travelers, everyone will have to possess an RT-PCR negative report from April 1," Sudhakar said. He added that the rule will be applicable to those, including permanent residents of the city, who arrive in the city from any place outside Karnataka.
To date, the same was demanded only from people entering Karnataka from Maharashtra, Kerala, and Punjab.
Announcing solidarity to the call for Bharat Bandh by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a coalition of farmers’ unions, their counterparts in Bengaluru announced a symbolic funeral procession will be held in the city on March 26.
"A state-wide funeral procession will be organised by SKM against the draconian anti-agrarian farm laws. This is to begin from Town Hall at 10 am," the organising committee said in a statement.
Earlier on Monday, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait and Hasiru Sene Chief Kodihalli Chandrashekhar had urged farmers to intensify protests in Bengaluru against the Centre.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Thursday condemned the police for filing an FIR against Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait in connection with a “provocative speech” he delivered in Shivamogga last weekend.
“If they really wanted to book cases against those indulging in provocative speeches, how many cases should have been booked against BJP leaders by now?” Kumaraswamy said.
Read more
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa Thursday laid the foundation stone for the ambitious K-100 Rajakaluve project in Bengaluru. The project aims at restoring the city’s waterways and its stormwater drain network to European style pathways with walking and cycling lanes, small parks and other recreational spaces for the public.
Also Read | Bengaluru civic body plans to facelift city’s stormwater drain network
A day after several residents of ITI Layout in South Bengaluru complained of three people allegedly vandalising vehicles parked outside their houses, the police arrested three people, including two minors.
According to Chennamanakere Achukattu police, CCTV footage from the area revealed that the trio damaged nearly 20 vehicles, including cars and bikes, parked outside houses.
Read more
Prices of petrol and diesel dropped in Bengaluru, and other Indian cities, for the second consecutive day on Thursday.
While each litre of petrol costs Rs 93.82 in Bengaluru, diesel is available for Rs 85.99 per litre. The prices have dropped by 22 paise for both petrol and diesel.
In Mumbai, petrol is retailing at Rs 97.19, while diesel costs Rs 88.20, data available on Indian Oil Corporation’s website showed. The same in New Delhi is Rs 90.78 per litre for petrol and Rs 81.10 per litre for diesel.
The Karnataka government has decided to impose heavy fines on citizens and establishments such as hotels and departmental stores, and organisers of public events who fail to enforce Covid safety rules.
“The owners of the establishment will be responsible for ensuring compulsory wearing of masks and social distancing, enforcing restrictions on the number of persons to be allowed,” a late order notification by the state government on Wednesday read.
See full list of revised fines
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa Wednesday defended the BJP-led state government’s move to borrow more loans with the state facing fiscal stress.
In his reply during the discussion on the recent budget presentation in the Legislative Assembly, he said, “The government has no magic wand and the treasury is not any Akshaya Patra in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic.”
Yediyurappa was reading out his reply even as the Opposition Congress continued with protests against the government citing inaction against former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi on the sex-for-job CD row.
Read more
Karnataka received 4 lakh more doses of Covid-19 vaccine late night on Wednesday, Health and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar confirmed in a tweet. He added that measures have been taken to ensure that there is no shortage of vaccines in the state.
Over 28.91 lakh people have been inoculated across Karnataka so far. While over 5.34 lakh healthcare workers have taken the first dose, 3.26 lakh of them have taken the second jab. Government data also indicates that over 2 lakh and 63,073 frontline workers have taken the first and second doses respectively.
Meanwhile, over 13.76 lakh senior citizens (above age of 60 years) and 3.81 lakh people with co-morbidities (between the age of 45 and 60) have been inoculated so far.
The state is expecting another tranche of 12 lakh doses dispatched from the Centre this week.
As Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar attributed the recent surge in Covid-19 cases across the state to a second wave of the pandemic, as many as 12,341 more people contracted the infection in the past week (since March 17).
According to the Department of Health and Family Welfare Services, 7851 of these cases were reported from Bengaluru Urban alone. Meanwhile, 54 more people succumbed to the infection across the state of which 33 were from the capital city alone.
To date, over 9.75 lakh people have tested positive for coronavirus while the cumulative fatality count is 12,461.