The Karnataka government on Tuesday issued fresh coronavirus guidelines for people coming from Kerala, which has seen a surge in infections, reported PTI. People coming from Kerala would now have to produce a negative RT-PCR certificate that should not be older than 72 hours.
In the order, Additional Chief Secretary Jawaid Akhtar said that new special surveillance measures for those arriving from Kerala have been introduced. They are based on the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19.
The government said that if people from Kerala are found positive, their samples would be sent to Bengaluru’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences for genome sequencing. Those residing in hostels and colleges would not be allowed to have visitors or relatives without getting permission from the Covid-19 nodal officers, the government said. It also asked authorities to maintain a list of students travelling to and from Kerala.
The students would have to produce the certificate every time they return from Kerala till the situation improves in Bengaluru. The city has reported two Covid-19 clusters, according to the Hindustan Times.
Forty-two students from a nursing college in RT Nagar and 103 residents of an apartment in Bommanhalli had tested positive. The nursing college has 70% of its students from Kerala.
In the wake of the clusters, the Karnataka government has also decided to subject those arriving from Kerala in the past two weeks to RT-PCR tests. Besides these restrictions, the government has also decided to declare any hostels, boarding or residential, educational institutions with a cluster of five or more cases, a containment zone.
Those not complying with the order would be reported to the nodal person or authorities and will be quarantined till their RT- PCR test was found to be negative.
Further, passengers arriving from the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa will also have to bring a negative RT-PCR certificate, the state government said, according to Mint. The government added that international passengers will have to undergo home quarantine for 14 days and a follow-up RT-PCR will be conducted on the seventh day.
Karnataka has so far reported 9,45,638 Covid-19 cases and its toll stood at 12,267, according to the Union health ministry. There are 5,791 active cases and 9,27,580 people have recovered from the infection.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!