Spike in cases in Hassan district

From now onwards, nobody would be allowed to enter the district without a test: Minister Madhuswamy

Hassan district, which was in the green zone with zero cases of COVID-19 until May 12, reported 136 positive cases as on Tuesday. This spike has upset many including Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs J.C. Madhuswamy, who is also Minister in charge of the district.

At a meeting here on Wednesday, the Minister said the present status was highly disappointing. However, he did not blame anyone for this. “None of us in the district is responsible for this situation. When people from outside the State were allowed to come in, the cases increased”, he said.

The Maharashtra and Gujarat governments have let their people free to go wherever they want to go, unable to test all of them and quarantine them. “A campaign to motivate people to live with coronavirus has already begun there”, he said.

From now onwards, the Minister said, nobody would be allowed to enter the district without a test. All those who enter the district would be tested at the border itself. “Those who test positive to the infection will be shifted to the hospital and those negative will be sent to quarantine centres. Without such a measure we cannot control the spread of the infection”, he said.

The Minister directed the district administration to quarantine people individually, instead of allotting three-four people in one room. There would be chances of infection spreading among the people in quarantine centres, he said.

Appeal

Deputy Commissioner R. Girish appealed to the Minister to continue the restrictions on people from Maharashtra entering the State. As of now, the government had stopped the entry of people from Maharashtra up to May 31. “It is difficult to accommodate people from out of State in the district. The government should continue the restrictions for a few more days”, he said. The Minister said he would discuss the issue at the next Cabinet meeting.

SP R. Srinivasa Gowda, Zilla Panchayat CEO B.A. Paramesh and other officers attended the meeting.