BENGALURU: Owing to a spike in Covid-19 cases among those arriving in Karnataka from other states and countries, the state government may restrict travel from more states, apart from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. The restrictions will be in effect till May 31.
The state government’s decision stems from the fact that these three states have reported a high number of active and positive cases. Also, around 47.5 per cent of all Covid cases reported in the state between May 1 and May 19 are of patients with domestic and international travel history.
“We are not giving consent for entry from the three states with a high number of cases,” Chief Secretary TM Vijaya Bhaskar told The New Indian Express. At 12 pm on Tuesday, Maharashtra had 35,058 cases, Tamil Nadu 11,760 and Gujarat 11,745. Another senior Health Department official said, “Almost all our returnees are from these states. The Health Department is open to adding more states to the ‘restricted list’ if need be.”
The state Covid-19 war room report at 12 pm on Tuesday stated that Mandya had accounted for 49 per cent of all cases reported in Karnataka, and a majority of these patients had a travel history to Maharashtra. The same report stated that 78 per cent of cases in the last 19 hours had a domestic travel history.
Since May 1, 272 people who have tested positive are returnees from Maharashtra. As on May 19, Gujarat had the highest mortality rate at 114.9 deaths per 10 million population and Maharashtra had the highest positivity rate of 12 per cent.