BENGALURU: Amid a rapid surge in Covid-19 cases in the state capital and signs of the contact-tracing model crumbling, Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa on Saturday announced a complete lockdown in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts from 8pm on July 14 to 5am on July 22.
An unnamed senior cabinet minister was among the 2,798 new Covid cases reported across the state during the day, 1,533 of them in Bengaluru alone. The 24-hour spike was the third highest in the country after Maharashtra (8,139 cases) and Tamil Nadu (3,965). The tech capital’s overall case count stood at 16,862, with 229 deaths.
Several other cities and towns — from Maharashtra in the west to Guwahati and Shillong in the Northeast – on Saturday got either an extension or a return to lockdown. After Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Thane city, Kalyan-Dombivli and Mira-Bhayander on Friday, more urban and rural pockets of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region joined the list of places where the lockdown will continue.
In the Northeast, the Assam government extended the ongoing 14-day lockdown in Guwahati and other pockets of Kamrup (Metro) district by another week till July 19.
For the Meghalaya capital of Shillong, the Covid-induced total lockdown will make a comeback for two days, beginning Monday.