Nine people, including afour-month-old infant, tested positive for coronavirus, taking the number of infections to 427 in Karnataka, even as the state government on Wednesday announced partial relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown norms from April 23.A state health department bulletin said as of 5:00 PM on April 22, cumulatively 427 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state.The figure includes 17 deaths and 131 patients discharged.It said out of 279 active cases, 274 patients including a pregnant woman are in isolation at designated hospitals and their condition is stable.Five patients are in the intensive care unit.The new cases confirmed include a four-month-old infant from Kalaburagi.The fresh cases include five from Kalaburagi and two each from Bengaluru urban and Nanjanagudu in Mysuru.Seven are contacts of COVID-19 positive patients, while the other two are having a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI).Nine out of 427 cases detected and confirmed in Karnataka are transit passengers of Kerala, it said.From across the state most number of infections have been reported in Bengaluru urban with 91 cases, followed by Mysuru 88 and Belagavi 43.Out of total 129 patients discharged so far, maximum 48 are from Bengaluru, 33 from Mysuru and 11 from Dakshina Kannada.Among the dead four each are from Bengaluru urban and Kalaburagi, two each from Chikkaballapura and Vijayapura, and one each from Belagavi, Bagalkote, Gadag, Dakshina Kannada and Tumakuru.A total of 29,512 samples have been tested, of which 3,279 were tested on Wednesday alone.So far 25,424 samples have reported negative, 3,202 alone on Wednesday.Meanwhile, the Karnataka government has announced partial relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown norms in the state allowing IT and IT enabled services to operate with essential minimum staff and also certain construction activities, manufacturing of packaging materials, courier services, among others, from April 23."IT and IT enabled Services will be allowed to operate with essential minimum staff only. Rest to work from home," the government said.The activities will be permitted only outside the COVID-19 containment zones identified by the government.Service provided by self-employed people like electrician, IT repair, plumbers, motor mechanics, and carpenters in local areas have also been given exemption.To mitigate hardship to the public, select additional activities have been allowed which will come into effect from 00.00 hours of April 23, Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar said in an order.However, these additional activities will be operationalised by District Administrations and BBMP (in the case of Bengaluru city) based on strict compliance to the guidelines on lockdown measures, it said.Confronted by financial problems, the state government has been eager to kickstart economic activities in the state that had come to halt due to COVID-19 lockdown.While hospitality services, bars, malls, theatres, shopping complexes, religious and places of worship among others will continue to remain shut, relaxation has been for activities that are linked to essential services such as health, infrastructure and agriculture.The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has requested that the state surveillance officers formulate data privacy norms.Personally identifiable data may be shared with discretion and strict privacy should be ensured.The state health and family welfare director has issued circular to districts to give relaxation on COVID-19 duty for pregnant women and those mothers having children less than one year old and they may be assigned for other office duties.The director has also issued another notification stating that Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severely Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases,which have got similar symptoms of COVID-19, should be screened at the initial stages so that morbidity and mortality due to the virus can be arrested in the community.The director issued circulars to all districts to provide treatment to non-coronavirus patients at hospitals empanelled under Arogya Karnataka Aysushman Bharat scheme, as most district hospitals have been recognised as COVID-19 hospitals.Minister Suresh Kumar, the spokesperson for COVID-19 in the state, said in response to a question that number of containment zones in the state as notified by Deputy Commissioners including BBMP was 337."In addition today 22 more containment zones is being notified, taking the total to 359 in Karnataka," he added.The health department has issued a circular to conduct COVID-19 test for journalists, the minister said.Kumar said, "1000 journalists in Bengaluru will be tested, 200 per day at C V Raman Hospital in the city.
