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Bengaluru: As coronavirus cases continue to rise in the state, the Karnataka government on Wednesday issued fresh COVID guidelines and made home isolation mandatory for Covid positive patients. The development comes as the state has reported 34 cases of JN.1 variant.
On Tuesday, the Karnataka government’s cabinet sub-committee issued a set of preventive directives on Tuesday.
The preventive measures include adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour such as wearing masks in public, maintaining social distancing, seven days of home isolation for infected individuals, and refraining from sending children with symptoms to schools.
The sub-committee also advised the elderly and those with comorbidities to receive a ‘precautionary vaccine’, and decided to procure 30,000 doses of the Corbevax vaccine from the Centre.
Earlier in the day, Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said that there are 34 cases of JN.1 variant of COVID-19 in the state but the government is well prepared and nothing is “alarming.”
“430 cases are active out of which 400 are in home isolation and the remaining are in hospital. 7-8 patients are in ICU. As of now, things are okay. We have done genome sequencing. There are 34 cases of JN.1 variant of COVID. We are well prepared. Nothing is alarming. the majority of the cases are in Bengaluru,” he told ANI.
Further, he also advised people to maintain social distancing.
“Old people will be getting the booster vaccine. If they want can take it. About 30,000 vaccines, we are procuring. We will give the anti-flu vaccine to our health workers. New year is coming; we are advising people to maintain physical distancing,” he added.
Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar urged the public to not panic while assuring that everything is fine so far.
“No need to panic about Covid. Everything is fine now. Our health minister will update,” Shivakumar said.
A total of 69 cases of JN.1 subvariant of COVID have been reported in the country till December 25, Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The total number of active covid cases in the country was recorded at 4,170.
Karnataka reported 436 cases, Kerala 3096, Maharashtra 168, Gujarat 56, and Tamil Nadu 139 cases, according to Union Health Ministry data.
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