Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner K.V. Rajendra said on Saturday that places of worship in the district will not be reopened for devotees at least for another two weeks.
If anybody drove vehicles for visiting temples like Dharmasthala Manjunatha, Kukke Subrahmanya, and other places, such vehicles will be seized and cases will be booked against them.
The temple managements should also ask devotees to return if they are from faraway places. Additional check posts will be set up in places like Charmadi on the Chikkamagaluru-Mangaluru national highway and Periyashanthi on the Mangaluru-Bengaluru National Highway to curb the movement of such vehicles.
Addressing presspersons virtually, Dr. Rajendra said that the district administration will take a call on relaxing the lockdown conditions on Monday based on the directions from the government. If the government agrees, the conditions can be relaxed in a phased manner.
He said that the positivity rate in all taluks in Dakshina Kannada, except in Belthangady, stood at 6 %. In Belthnagady taluk it was at 12 %.
Dr. Rajendra said that the positivity rate in the entire district has dropped from 18 % a week ago to below 9 % now. The administration has increased the sample tests. For example, 59,818 samples had been tested in a week from June 12 to June 18.
The Deputy Commissioner said that of 6,931 active cases in the district as of Friday, 836 patients (12 %) were in hosptials and 5,646 patients (81%) were under home isolation and treatment. There were 449 patients in COVID Care Centres. The case fatality ratio was at 1.17 %.
Stating that the spread of COVID-19 is under control in the district, he said that people need not be apprehensive unnecessarily. But all should cooperate to contain its spread by following COVID-19 appropriate behaviour.
