Curfew or not? Biz waits for good news today

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: All eyes are on the meeting of the high-power committee headed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai which will be held on Friday at 1 pm to take stock of the current Covid situation and decide whether the existing weekend and night curfew norms should be relaxed in the wake of strong opposition from traders and businessmen.

Though several ministers have hinted at a possible lifting of the weekend curfew and the restriction of night curfew from 11 pm to 5 am instead of the existing 10 pm to 5 am, the surge in Corona positive cases has come as a rude shock for the government and the health department.

In the last two days, around 90,000 Corona positive cases have been reported of which around 65,000 cases are from Bengaluru City alone. Even the number of deaths has been increasing steadily. The only solace is that patient admissions to hospitals has been minimal. Around 93 per cent of the patients are home quarantined due to the mild symptoms they have.

While former CM Siddaramaiah and KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar are all for lifting of the weekend curfew, another former CM, H.D. Kumaraswamy has urged the CM to tread carefully with the daily cases almost touching the 50,000 mark.

Union Minister for Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi and BJP National General Secretary C.T.Ravi too have batted for lifting the night and weekend curfew in view of the mild symptoms the new variant, Omicron, causes. The CM on his part has said that the right decision would be taken in consultation with health experts and members of the Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).

The meeting will be held at ‘Krishna,’ the home office of the CM and a decision is likely to be out by 2:30 pm. It remains to be seen whether the government will cancel the weekend curfew succumbing to the pressure of BJP leaders.

Health experts have asked the government to be cautious as a wrong decision may create havoc in the state. No decision must be taken in a hurry since scientists have not been able to give a clear picture on the behavior of the new variant. Some experts favour continuing the curbs for the next 10-15 days in view of the rising cases.