Considering the gradual rise of Covid-19 cases in and around Bengaluru, the Health and Family Welfare Department on Tuesday issued a fresh set of guidelines focusing on larger apartments, offices, and education institutions.
The Health Department also clarified of no public places to be shut down as the implementation of the fresh guidelines would be enough to contain the possible pandemic situation in the state.
As part of the guidelines, an apartment will be considered a small cluster if there are 3 to 5 cases then all residents on the floor will be subjected to Rapid Antigen Test (RAT). If there are more than five symptomatic cases then the entire block must be tested and for over 15 cases, all symptomatic residents will be subjected to a RAT test.
For domestic helps to work in households having Covid-19 infected person must be below 60 years and free from symptoms and must wear an N-95 mask while working. He/ she must be vaccinated with both doses for self-safety.
The guidelines for offices, schools, and colleges said any person with covid-19 symptoms should not attend office or school and instead undergo a RAT test and if positive be managed as per the state protocol one must isolate. But after the RAT test if one is identified as covid-19 negative then he/she must give RT-PCR, isolate and await the results of the test and act accordingly.
After the cluster or outbreak, the office or classroom areas from where the covid-19 positive cases were been reported must be sanitized using 1 per cent sodium hypochlorite for at least after one hour contact period and can be reused from the next day.
The Health Department also highly recommended strict enforcement of Covid-19 appropriate behavior like compulsory face masks, sanitization of hands, and social distancing.
Meanwhile, Karnataka on Tuesday registered 968 Covid-19 cases and Bengaluru alone reported 887 Covid-19 cases. The positive rate stood at 5.44 per cent, the highest in recent weeks.
To control the situation in the early stage, the Karnataka government is also mulling action against those violating the mask rule. The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on Covid-19 has suggested the measure to contain the possible pandemic situation in the state. The health department is seriously considering the advice and is expected to take a call soon.
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