covid-19 pandemic in karnataka covid-19 pandemic in karnataka the first case of the covid-19 pandemic in the indian state of karnataka was confirmed on 8 march 2020. two days later, the state became the first in india to invoke the provisions of the epidemic diseases act, 1897, which was set to last for a year, to curb the spread of the disease. as of 25 october 2022, karnataka has 40,01,655 confirmed cases and 40,097 deaths. with 39,52,381 recoveries and 9,135 active cases. covid-19 pandemic in karnatakadiseasecovid-19virus strainsars-cov-2locationkarnataka, indiaindex casebengaluru urbanarrival date8 march 2020(3 years, 2 months and 4 days)confirmed cases2587827active cases342010recovered2217117 deaths28679 fatality rate1.35%government websitekarunadu.karnataka.gov.in/hfw timeline of events february 2020 on 24 february, it professional who worked at a tech park in the outskirts of bengaluru and stayed in a pg accommodation. he travelled to dubai on an assignment on 15 february and returned to bengaluru on 20 february. he attended office for two days – 20 and 21 february – before taking the bus to hyderabad in neighbouring telangana. his samples had tested positive on 24 february in hyderabad. march 2020 on 8 march, employee of dell, who traveled from texas on 28 february via new york city and dubai, before arriving at bengaluru on 1 march, was found to be positive for coronavirus. his wife and daughter along with one of his colleagues are admitted to a hospital. the colleague showed flu-like symptoms. on 10 march, the employee of mindtree came back to bengaluru from an overseas trip. he was tested positive. the dell employee's wife and daughter too have been tested positive and have been isolated under medical supervision. on 12 march, a 26-year-old man, an employee of google who came from a trip to greece, is confirmed to be positive for coronavirus, according to the state health department. in addition, his wife did not disclose their travel history and having evaded protocols traveled back to her home town of agra in uttar pradesh. the country's first death due to coronavirus has been reported from karnataka after the state confirmed that samples of the deceased 76-year-old man from kalaburagi were positive. the man had returned from saudi arabia on 29 february. on 15 march, the new case is the daughter of the 76-year-old kalaburagi man who died last week and was found to have coronavirus. on 16 march, a 32-year-old man, who returned from the us via london earlier this month, tested positive. he had returned from the us via london on 8 march by the same flight as the patient #4 (mindtree employee) who had tested positive. on 17 march, three more cases reported- the first, patient is a 20-year-old woman who had travelled to the united kingdom. the second one, 63-year-old doctor that treated the senior citizen who died recently of covid-19 in kalaburagi. in another case reported, a 67-year-old female resident of bengaluru returned from dubai via goa on 9 march. she is a known case of chronic kidney disease. on 18 march, three more positive cases reported in bengaluru. the first, 56-year-old man who returned from the us on 6 march. the second, 26-year-old woman who returned from spain. the third, 35-year-old man who returned from us on 10 march. on 19 march, one more positive case confirmed in kodagu with travel history to saudi arabia. the person arrived at bengaluru from dubai on 15 march. on 21 march, five positive cases were reported in the state. the first is a 53-year-old woman from bengaluru. she was a housemaid for case-11, a female of 67-year-old who was confirmed as positive on 17 march. the second and the third are from bengaluru of age 39 and 21 years respectively. while the former returned from amsterdam, the netherlands on 19 march and the latter from scotland on 17 march. the fourth, a 32-year-old man with travel history to mecca from gauribidanur in chikkaballapura. the fifth, is a 35-year-old male from mysore who arrived at bengaluru on 19 march from dubai. on 23 march, seven positive cases were reported in the state. two of them (p27, p33) are from kerala with travel history to dubai and currently being treated at mysuru & bengaluru respectively. all remaining five cases are from bengaluru, four with travel history (p28, p29, p31, p32)- from dubai, uk, uk and germany and one being a local transmission – p30 who is the wife of p17. on 24 march, eight new cases were reported including 3 transit passengers of kerala who have landed in airports and being treated in karnataka. on 26 march, four more positive case confirmed in the state. p52 from mysuru has neither travel history nor contact of him with any other positive cases. on this day covid-19 pandemic in davanagere started. on 27 march, 9 new cases were reported. a 65-year-old man with travel history to delhi, died in tumakuru. p56 (10-month-old male child) from dakshina kannada has no history of travel to covid-19-affected countries but was taken by parents to nearby kerala and investigation is underway for tracing. on 29 march, 7 new cases were reported, of which 5 are from the same pharmaceutical company in nanjanagudu. this is termed as a cluster, and the town has been put under complete lockdown. on 30 march, 5 new cases were reported, of which 4 are from the same pharmaceutical company in nanjanagudu. p84 from tumakuru is the son of #p60. on 31 march, 13 new cases were reported, of which 2 are from the same pharmaceutical company in nanjanagudu, 3 from ballari had only been to bengaluru, and one person in bengaluru with no travel details is in icu. april 2020 on 2 april, 14 new cases have come out, including 2 from nanjanagudu trace and 11 from tablighi jamaat meet – all in bidar. on 3 april, four new cases including 3 from belagavi who attended tablighi jamaat meet, delhi and 70-year-old man from bagalkot. on 4 april, 75-year-old man from bagalkot died. 16 new cases were confirmed. on 10 april, several new sari (severe acute respiratory infection) cases are emerging (8 to date), which has become a mystery for the health department. on 12 april, 567 new cases have been reported. a new case emerged after 21 days of travel! an unknown cluster seems to have emerged in vijayapura. on 23 april, a cluster emerged in bangalore with 9 contacts of a migrant labourer from bihar testing positive. on 30 april, 30 new cases have been reported. may 2020 on 4 may, 37 new cases were reported, of which 20 were contacts of p533 in davanagere, and 7 were contacts of p590 in bidar early containment efforts on 9 march 2020, the karnataka state government issued a circular ordering the closure of kindergartens and primary classes in all schools in the state. the minister for primary and secondary education, s. suresh kumar, said that this circular was issued as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus. on 31 march, the government vide its circular, postponed the examinations for class 7 to 9 as a precautionary measure to avoid spread of coronavirus. then chief minister of karnataka, b.s. yediyurappa after the state reporting its first death, issued a directive to close all public places with high footfall like malls, universities and colleges, movie theatres, night clubs, marriages and conferences, as a precautionary measure amid the growing scare of the novel coronavirus (covid-19). further, the state closed its borders with kerala for vehicular traffic in the wake of six people testing positive for coronavirus in bordering kasargod of kerala. on sunday 22 march, after the second meeting of the task force formed to tackle the covid-19 pandemic. the government announced further restriction in the form of lockdown of 9 districts until 31 march. all non-essential services in these districts were suspended. the nine districts where covid-19 cases were reported were: bengaluru rural, bengaluru urban, chikkaballapura, dakshina kannada, dharwad, kalaburagi, mysuru, kodagu and belagavi. lockdown further, to contain community transmission of the virus, the central government decided to lock down the entire country for a period of 21 days beginning 25 march 2020. initial lockdown to address the plight of migrant workers and the poor, the government of karnataka established a toll-free helpline number – 155214 – for providing food to migrant laborers in the state. on april 11, the government issued a circular advising all citizens and health care officials to download, promote and use aarogya setu application on their mobile phones to enhance contact tracing of infected persons. the mobile application is designed to give alerts if an infected person comes within the proximity of the person who has installed the application on their phones using bluetooth and gps technology. in line with governments of india's order, minority welfare, waqf and hajj department under government of karnataka issued an order on 15 april for suspending all the congressional prayers (salat) during the month of ramadan in mosques/dargahs until 3 may 2020, due to current covid-19 pandemic in the state. the order also banned all the eateries near mosques. lockdown 2. 0 further, with states in favor of continuing the term of lockdown for another two weeks. during the fourth address to the nation concerning coronavirus, prime minister narendra modi extended the lockdown until 3 may starting 14 april. however, based on the centers' guidelines issued, the chief minister of karnataka indicated the decision on relaxation would be taken on 20 april after evaluating the extent of public conformity to the lockdown. following up with the message of the extension of the lockdown. the central government announced a fresh set of guidelines to be observed by all states. circles drawn in front of a bengaluru store to guide for social distancing all places of social gatherings including religious conventions shall be barred. most of the agricultural activities shall be exempted and will be allowed to be operated. all public work programs linked with employment of daily -wage-labours with social-distancing measures in place. lockdown 3.0 in line with guidelines issued by the government of india, the chief minister of karnataka, further extended the lockdown in the state up to 17 may. this time, the government classified the areas in four main categories: containment, red, orange, and green zones, based on conducting risk profiling of various districts. lockdown 4.0 on 18 may 2020, the chief minister of karnataka announced the continuation of the lockdown in the state up to 31 may 2020. alongside this, he also gave many relaxations after receiving the guidelines from the central ministry of home affairs. during this phase of the lockdown, most of the activities excluding shopping malls, cinema halls, hotels, restaurants were permitted to operate between 7 am to 7 pm, except on sundays, as the government has decided to enforce a strict lockdown on every sundays up to 31 may 2020. after a closure of almost two months, all modes of public transport services, including buses, cabs, auto-rickshaws, and intrastate train services were permitted to operate from 19 may 2020. putting an end to the speculation on raising the fares in state-run buses, caused because of limited seats allowed to travel in a bus, the chief minister said: "we will not increase bus fares for now. ksrtc will bear the losses caused due to carrying a limited number of passengers." in the wake of recent spike in the covid-19 cases reported, the government has decided to allow people from neighbouring states of gujarat, maharashtra, tamil nadu, and kerala in a restricted manner. lockdown exit strategy the government of karnataka, facing severe financial crunch, in an attempt to kick-start the economy, on 23 april announced a conditional relaxing of restrictions in lockdown by exempting some economic activity in the state. however, the relaxations would not apply in the designated containment zones. most of the manufacturing, construction and food processing units outside municipal limits were exempted. hotels, home stays where people were stranded because of lockdown were allowed to open including various services linked with supply chain at railway stations, sea and airports could function. most of the services provided by self-employed persons like plumbers, technicians and carpenters were also allowed. however, the officials stressed that, various district administrations shall clear all the exemptions after examining the compliance by the people of