Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Friday ordered all malls, theatres and pubs to be shut for a week starting Saturday following the death of a man due to COVID-19, as well as a rise in positive cases, which stood at six.
“In the light of coronavirus outbreak, I am ordering the closure of malls, theatres and pubs for a week starting Saturday,” said Yediyurappa after a meeting.
The state government has also cancelled marriages and social gatherings fearing the spread of the deadly virus.
Late on Thursday night, Karnataka Health Minister B. Sriramulu confirmed that a 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi in the state’s northern region died due to coronavirus.
The Kalaburagi district administration initiated steps to contain the possible spread of the infection from the area where the deceased used to reside in.
District Magistrate Sharat B. Rajendra and other senior officers visited the ward no.30 in the city to oversee the precautionary measures to be undertaken for preventing the spread of the infection.
Speaking to the media, the District Magistrate said the entire area has been declared a ‘restricted zone’, to check the spread of infection through intensive screening and monitoring of people’s movement in the locality.
District officials have advised policymakers and authorities to consider an area of five km around the containment zone, as a buffer zone for the coronavirus infection.
As a precautionary measure, a seven-day holiday has been declared for all the educational institutions in the district.
