The Karnataka government which had earlier mandated a negative RT-PCR COVID-19 test result for travellers from the neighbouring states of Kerala and Goa has withdrawn the rule and announced on Thursday, February 17 that such travellers need not carry a negative RT-PCR result anymore.
In a circular, TK Anil Kumar who is the Principal Secretary to the Government of Karnataka stated, “In view of current COVID-19 situation, the mandate of possessing RT-PCR negative test report shall be discontinued for those arriving from the states of Goa and Kerala (Airways, Railways, Road Transport and personal vehicle).”
However, the circular stated that travellers arriving from these two states will have to furnish their vaccination certificate to authorities and they would be required to have taken both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Karnataka had earlier in June 2021 imposed a rule that mandated that travellers coming into Karnataka from Kerala and Maharashtra had to mandatorily carry a negative RT-PCR test report not older than 72 hours irrespective of the vaccination status of the traveller. Before this, Karnataka had provided an exemption for negative RT-PCR report rule to those who had received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. However, in June due to the high case load in both Kerala and Maharashtra, the rule was imposed again.
Karnataka logged 1,849 new COVID-19 cases against 5,418 discharges and 24 deaths on Wednesday, February 16. The number of total active COVID-19 cases in the state stood at 23,284. The positivity rate for the day stood at 1.90% and case fatality rate was at 1.26%.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Bengaluru Urban came down to 835 against 1,979 discharges. The state reported 24 deaths in the latest 24-hour period. The total active cases have come down to 9,955 in the city. A total of 99,516 COVID-19 tests were done in the latest 24-hour period. The positivity rate has come down to 1.90% from 4.25% last week. The recovery rate stood at 98.39% in the state. A total of 1,440 patients are being treated at various hospitals.
With IANS inputs