Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India]: With the state witnessing a rise in Omicron cases, the Karnataka government has decided to impose a night curfew from December 28 from 10 pm to 5 am for ten days. The announcement came after Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai chaired a meeting with cabinet colleagues, the state chief secretary, and other senior officials from health and police departments. Addressing a press conference here today, Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar said, “A statewide night curfew will be imposed from December 28 from 10 pm to 5 am for ten days. New Year celebrations at pubs, restaurants and hotels are banned. Section 144 will be imposed in the state from December 28.” Sudhakar added, “Only 50 per cent seating arrangements are allowed in hotels.” He said that the state vaccinated at least 97 per cent of its eligible population with the first dose of anti-COVID doses. “Remaining three per cent will be achieved as soon as possible. 75 per cent of the eligible population are fully vaccinated in the state.” He also said the COVID-19 vaccine will be administered to children aged 15 to 18 and booster shot to those above 60 years and have comorbidity conditions. The health minister said there are 43 lakh children with age bracket of 15 to 18 who will receive the jab. The vaccination drive for children will begin from January 3, 2022, while the administering of preventive doses for senior citizens will be from January 10. From January 10, all the health workers, frontline workers and people with comorbidity conditions will be the preventive doses or booster doses. In the next few days, the state will be 3051 additional ICU beds to the already available 4,000 beds, taking the total number of beds tally to over 7,000.
