Karnataka restricts travelling to Kerala till Oct due to COVID, Nipah

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Tuesday issued an advisory, asking residents of the state to avoid travel to neighbouring Kerala which is currently grappling with a massive surge in Covid-19 infections and a new scare of the resurgence of the Nipah virus.

The health department has requested the authorities and other private players to see to it that people postpone their travel plans till the end of October.

Jawaid Akthar, Additional Chief Secretary in Health and Family Welfare Department, stated that all administrators and principals of educational, nursing, paramedical institutions have been advised to instruct their wards to defer their return till the end of October. Further, they should direct their students and other staff not to travel to Kerala from Karnataka for the same period.

Similar guidelines have also been issued to all the administrators, owners of hospitals, nursing homes, offices, hotels, factories and industries. People have been advised to defer their plans to visit Kerala till the end of October.

The decision has been taken in view of the prevailing COVID situation in Kerala. It has been observed that students and employees arriving in Karnataka from Kerala with negative RT-PCR reports are testing Covid positive during a repeat test, Akthar said.

The number of such cases is considerably high in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.