Curfews to be withdrawn?

Bengaluru: The weekend curfew and night curfew are likely to be withdrawn on Friday following pressure from senior BJP leaders including a Union Minister.

Several traders and businessmen including hoteliers, bars and restaurants and pub owners are angry with the state government for imposing night curfew and weekend curfew in the entire state since the last week of December,2021 that has hit their business hard.

As per weekend curfew norms, all hotels, pubs, bars & restaurants would have to be shut at 10 am on Friday and open at 5 am on Monday. Those places would make roaring business only on weekends and the shutting down of business is causing themhuge losses.

On Tuesday, Union Minister for Mines, Coal and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi opined that there was no need for night curfew or weekend curfew if the Covid-19 situation is under control.

Increase testing:Centre

Meanwhile, flagging a decline in the number of Covid-19 tests in many states and union territories, the Centre on Tuesday asked them to enhance testing so that an effective track of the spread of the pandemic can be kept and immediate citizen-centric action can be initiated.

In a letter to states and UTs, Additional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Arti Ahuja advised them to pay attention to this aspect immediately and increase the testing in a strategic manner keeping in view the trend of case positivity in specific areas. She highlighted that Omicron, which has been designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a variant of concern, is currently spreading across the country.