Karnataka Declares Coronavirus as State Epidemic, Puts in Place Temporary Regulations

New Delhi: The Karnataka government on Wednesday issued a notification with temporary regulations regarding the novel coronavirus, naming it 'The Karnataka Epidemic Diseases, Covid-19 regulations 2020.'

The state government asked the public to take special measures to prevent outbreak of the disease. It also decided to postpone all international conferences in the state with immediate effect till further notice.

The following regulations were issued by the government under Section 2, 3, 4 of Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 and Central Act 3 of 1897:

• Authorised person under these regulations are director, health and family welfare services, director, medical education at state level and DCs, DHOs and DSs
• All hospital, govt and private should have flu corners for screening of suspected cases of COVID-19
• If cases of COVID-19 are reported from a defined geographic area, the district administration of the concerned district shall have the right to implement the following containment measures but not limited to these in order to prevent spread of diseases

Other directives issued were:

1. Sealing of geographic

2. Barring of entry and exit of population from the containment area

3. Closure of schools, offices and banning public gathering

4. Banning vehicular movement in the area

5. Designating any govt or private building as containment unit for the isolation of cases

6. Staff of all govt departments shall be at the disposal of concerned district administration of the concerned area for discharging the duty of containment measures

Penalty:-

Any person, institution or organisation found violating any of these regulations, shall be deemed to have committed an offence punishable under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

This decision by the Yediyurappa government comes on the day when a 76-year-old lost his life in a suspected case of coronavirus, which, if confirmed, would make him the first in the country to die to succumb to the infection.

Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu said that there has been no confirmation yet on the cause of death of the man, who had recently returned from Saudi Arabia. The test reports of his samples were awaited.

The state has reported four positive cases of the virus so far, the minister said.

(With inputs from PTI)