COVID-19: Karnataka district official says border restrictions with Kerala to continue

Mangaluru: Restrictions on the movement of people enforced at the border with Kerala will continue as there has been no change in the COVID-19 situation in Kerala, Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner KV Rajendra said. Giving a clarification on reports claiming that the Centre has lifted the requirement of RT-PCR certificates to cross the border, he said the Karnataka government’s order mandating the RT-PCR test negative certificates for those coming to DK from Kerala is still in force. The order is meant to contain the spread of COVID-19 and the district administration will continue to implement the same, he said. Rajendra said more than 30,000 new COVID-19 cases are being reported from Kerala daily and the test positivity rate in neighbouring Kasaragod district is around 12 percent. In Dakshina Kannada, the positivity rate has been brought down to around 2 with a lot of effort and lifting of border restrictions will be like letting in new cases from Kerala. Though it is difficult to implement, the district has no other option than making the RT-PCR certificate mandatory, he said. The test positivity rate in the Dakshina Kannada district came down to 1.81 percent on Sunday.