Karnataka night curfew: Sudden and illogical change

The night curfew and restrictions imposed by the Karnataka government from December 28 to January 7 is illogical and ill-timed. The only effect of it might be to increase the burden on the hospitality sector, which is already reeling under heavy losses, while having no impact on the spread of the coronavirus. After issuing a notification just a week ago that there would be no major curbs on New Year eve, except on crowding at parties and celebrations in public places, the government has now made a U-turn, imposing a curfew from 10 pm to 5 am, while also restricting seating in restaurants to 50% capacity on four days. This only exposes the lack of foresight and reasoning in government, considering that the change of mind has occurred in the absence of any change in ground realities. According to the government’s own bulletin, Covid-19 is well under control: the test positivity rate (TPR) has been less than 1% for four months now, while it is around 0.3% in the current week; in a state with a population of nearly 6.5 crore, the number of active cases is around 7,500, while the recovery rate is 98%. The number of omicron patients is in two digits, with half of them having recovered.

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Night curfew has been imposed in the past too, but the government has not been able to provide any data to prove that it helped check the spread of Covid-19. There is certainly no data, of course, to indicate that the virus becomes active after dusk, that too on certain specific days. If anything, such unscientific restrictions will have the opposite effect as shrinking the time window for celebrations could potentially lead to over-crowding, exposing people to greater risk. While the government targets the hospitality industry for these measures, cinema theatres are allowed to run at full capacity, and there are absolutely no restrictions on political rallies and religious events. Restaurants, clubs and pubs which had already made arrangements for New Year eve by paying advances to various vendors and had also sold tickets for parties are now in fix, with the government having thrown a spanner in the works at the last moment. Some BJP leaders themselves have speculated on social media that extraneous considerations could be behind the move.

Instead of indulging in mere optics and trying to create a false sense of security, the government should deal with the real issues at hand by ensuring that the administrative machinery is in a constant state of readiness to tackle the third wave, if and when it occurs.