Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka announced on Friday that only fully-vaccinated people will be permitted to enter movie theatres and other public places, including malls and parks, in the state. The decision was taken after a high-level meeting with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
Addressing the media, the minister said that the measures have been taken in the wake of the new variant of Covid-19, Omicron, being found in the state.
It may be noted that Karnataka reported two Omicron cases on Thursday, the first instances of the new variant in the country. The state’s health department is tracing and isolating a minimum of 200 people who came in contact with the two Omicron patients.
As the fear over the new variant of Covid-19 is surging in the state, Chief Minister Bommai, on Monday, told the media that the government will decide on implementing strict measures, like restricting theatres, malls and other public places to 50% occupancy, after a meeting with health experts and other departments.
“We have received all recommendations, which will be put before the expert committee. We will discuss all issues, such as Omicron and Delta (the earlier variant of concern), during this meeting. Once the experts give their opinion, we will take further action,” the chief minister said.
Earlier, theatres across India were shut down in March 2020 following the nationwide lockdown in the wake of the pandemic. In October 2020, when the union government permitted theatres to reopen with 50% seating occupancy across the country, the Karnataka Film Exhibitors’ Federation announced that they would not reopen theatres in Karnataka until January 2021.
In February 2021, the Karnataka government allowed theatres to operate at 100% seating capacity. However, following the second wave of Covid-19, a notice was issued by the state government on April 2 reinstating the 50% seating occupancy rule in cinema halls as part of its revised guidelines.
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Later, exhibitors in the state shut down the theatres on April 23 owing to the restrictions and due to lack of Kannada film releases. They resumed operations with 50% occupancy on July 19. The Karnataka government increased the seating capacity to 100% on October 1 but specified that only people who had taken at least one dose of vaccine would be allowed to enter the theatres.
Now, this rule has been further tightened to only allow those who are fully-vaccinated (with two doses) to enter cinema halls.
On Monday, Karnataka reported as many as 201 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the total number of active cases in the state to 7067.