Ahead of an all-party meeting on Friday, June 26, the Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had ruled out all possibility of a fresh lockdown in Bengaluru. The CM said that the state's economy was equally important in this regard. However, the all-party meeting with MLAs will discuss how to contain COVID-19's spread in the state.

There had been a buzz around the city that Bengaluru might go back into another lockdown. There has also been a massive rise in cases in the state with a 442 increase in positive cases in the span of 24 hours. The CM had announced that a containment strategy for COVID-19 will be discussed in the all-party MLA meeting held today.

BS Yediyurappa meeting on COVID-19 rise in cases on 22nd June 2020
@RAshokaBJP on Twitter

Karnataka CM rules out fresh lockdown for Bengaluru

Even as Karnataka was hailed by the centre as the model to be followed and recreated in other states, the state has recorded a huge spike in cases. In the past few days, the government has made some enormous changes to its plan of fighting COVID-19. After sending certain parts of the city back into lockdown and enlisting private hospitals to fight COVID-19, the CM called for an all-party MLA meeting as well.

Ahead of the meeting, the CM told the media, "There is no question of imposing lockdown for any reason. In some areas (with high caseload) we have already implemented lockdown, other than those places there is no question of it being implemented in other places."  

Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa
Karnataka chief minister BS YediyurappaTwitter

However, he did say that during the meeting he would strive to strengthen measures to combat COVID-19's spread in the state. Many opposition party members have pushed for the imposition of the lockdown in the city of Bengaluru which has recorded the highest increase in COVID-19 cases. 

While the road forward looks uncertain, we can only hope the government devices a plan to help impede the spread of the virus. Yesterday the CM had said that if citizens didn't want another lockdown in Bengaluru they would have to cooperate with government directives.