Updated: December 3, 2020 6:48:22 pm
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A technical advisory committee advising the Karnataka government on how to tackle the pandemic warned that a second wave of the coronavirus could hit the state in January and suggested measures such as imposing a night curfew between December 26 and January 1 and Banning New Year Celebrations to minimize the impact on the state.
“Early recognition of the second wave of Covid-19 in the state can be made by closely monitoring the 7-day average growth rate and reproduction number (R0) at the district and state level. The second wave is expected during January-February 2021, ”the committee, made up of health experts, said in a November 30 report.
He said input from an epidemic intelligence team should be used for early recognition of the second wave by the state government and that a “minimum of 1.25 lakh of testing per day” should be conducted until the end of February, with at least one lakh being RT-PCR tests.
Winter conditions, openness of movement and public interactions, weak compliance, and movement of people between states are cited as causes of a possible second wave.
“There has been a second wave of Covid-19 in the United States, Europe, Australia and other countries. Recently, there has been an increase in cases in Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala and other states that has been of concern in other states, ”the committee stated.
It has recommended that the preparation for hospital care in the state in January be at the levels it was when the first wave of Covid-19 began to recede in October “in terms of beds, ICU, ICU ventilators, etc.”
The committee has said that mass gatherings should only be held in open areas, and has suggested a ban on public New Years celebrations and a nightly curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 p.m. from December 26 to January 1.
Karnataka registered its first case on March 8, and as of the end of November, a total of 8.74 lakh cases were detected in the state, with 11,678 deaths. The period from July to September was the worst, when the state witnessed an average of 10,000 Covid-19 cases per day. Since then, the number of cases has been controlled, with an average of 1,500 cases per day.
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