Celebrate festivals at home, urges BBMP chief
Festive season is riskiest for virus spread: Manjunatha Prasad
BENGALURU:
In a special appeal to Bengalureans in general, with a request to the media to disseminate it widely, new BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad has urged citizens to be especially cautious in their movements and activities as the upcoming festival season is the riskiest period for the spread of the coronavirus.
His message is reproduced verbatim below:
Attention, all Bengaluru residents. The Covid disease is now spreading very rapidly in Karnataka and especially in Bengaluru. The festival season is starting with Varamahalakshmi festival on July 31, followed by the Muslim festival of Bakrid, Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami, Gowri Ganesha, the Muslim festival of Moharram and then Onam. This festival season is the most RISKY time for the spread of the coronavirus. Therefore please STRICTLY follow the below-mentioned rules in order to stay safe, because we are in a very dangerous situation.
1. Please DO NOT visit temples, mosques, and other religious places of worship, even if they are officially declared open.
2. Please DO NOT visit your relatives, friends and neighbours for any reason. Please restrict your celebrations to small poojas at your own home with only homemade sweets and NO outside food and NO people visiting.
3. In case of the Gowri Ganesha festival, please DO NOT buy idols or take part in any community Visarjan activities. Outside idols already have a contamination risk, and any Visarjan activities will be a big source of coronavirus spread due to crowding of people, and because virus spreads very easily in water.
4. In case of Raksha Bandhan, if brothers and sisters do not live in the same house, then please DO NOT visit each other for tying the Rakhi.
5. In case of Varamahalakshmi Vratha, Janmashtami and Onam, please only perform small poojas in your own individual homes with only homemade food for prasadams. Please DO NOT visit any temples or each other’s homes.
6. In case of Muslim festivals, official details will be decided by the Waqf board. However, we sincerely request that celebrations are kept to a minimum and that all community events are avoided as much as possible.
Masks all the time
During this festival season, all people who go outdoors for any reason MUST take special care to wear the following protective equipment AT ALL TIMES:
1. Face mask is compulsory at all times.
2. Gloves must be worn as much as possible. If gloves are not possible, the person must wash hands with soap every half an hour and apply hand sanitizer every half an hour. Even if the person wears gloves, they still must remove gloves and wash hands every half an hour.
If you have any domestic helpers, drivers, security guards, housekeeping staff in residential buildings, technicians, office employees, etc., please immediately inform them of all the above rules so that they follow the rules completely and keep themselves and their families safe from the rapidly spreading Covid disease.
Report cases
If anyone has any coronavirus symptoms of breathing difficulty, fever, cough or cold, DO NOT allow them to come to your homes or office workplaces. Instead you must report them immediately to the Karnataka government Apthamitra helpline 14410 so that they can be tested and put in quarantine immediately.
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