- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
MORE than 240 children tested positive for Covid-19 in just five days in Bangalore, the capital of the South Indian state of Karnataka and the country’s information technology hub, raising fears that the third wave, which is predicted to affect children, has already started.
The state reported 1,338 cases and 31 deaths on Tuesday (10), according to the government and the state’s health department has said that more children are expected to test positive in the coming days.
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the city’s civic body, has said 242 children below 19 years of age have tested positive in the last five days. As per the data, 106 children below the age of nine and 136 between nine and 19 have tested positive.
Sources in the health department have warned that the number will “triple” within a few days and “there is a great danger”.
Advising people to keep their children indoors, one official said, “All we can do is protect our children from this virus by keeping them inside the home. Children will not have much immunity compared to older ones. It is highly recommended to parents that they keep children inside home and follow all the Covid-19 norms.”
The government of Karnataka has already put into place night and weekend curfews, particularly restricting entry points from the neighbouring states of Kerala and Maharashtra that have seen a high number of cases.
It has been reported that Bangalore could witness stringent measures in place after August 15 to prevent the third wave. The decision was announced following a meeting of the civic body officials and state revenue minister R Ashok to review the pandemic situation in the city. Ashok is also Bangalore’s minister-in-charge.
“There won’t be any change to the existing relaxations until August 15. Post that, there could be looking at the number of cases being reported in the city. Imposing of a weekend curfew in Bengaluru is being discussed if the positivity rate goes above 2%,” Ashok said.
Karnataka has seen a recording of 1,500 daily new cases in the last one month and the state’s new chief minister Vasavaraj Bommai has vowed to increase the vaccine doses from around 6.5 million to 10 million per month.
