Bengaluru : Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on April 26 announced that the entire state including Bengaluru city will go for a full lockdown for two weeks starting from April 27 night in a bid to contain the raging COVID-19 crisis in the state.

The decision came following a Cabinet meeting that was held on Monday morning as the state registered a record high of 34,000 COVID-19 cases on a single day on Sunday.

“We have come to a decision after speaking to all ministers and experts,” Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said in a press briefing after the cabinet meeting.

People will be allowed to buy essential services from 6 am to 10 am, the Chief Minister confirmed.

The state especially capital Bengaluru is reeling under a crisis of ventilator and ICU-beds with patients needing to wait for hours to get admitted in hospitals. As of Monday morning, Karnataka has more than 1.6 lakh active cases with an overwhelming majority in Bengaluru. In light of this, some members of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) which held its 99th meeting on April 24 in Bengaluru had advised for a two-week long down. Following their recommendation, the

The state is already under night curfew and weekend lockdown under existing restrictions as the number of cases have been on the rise since the start of April.

Starting with April, Bengaluru has seen a massive surge in deaths with 1,170 COVID-19 fatalities recorded in the city. The number of related deaths for the month of March, February and January were 147,88 and 66 respectively.

The highest number of deaths earlier was recorded in July 2020 when 962 persons died in Bengaluru due to COVID-19.