- Title: India's tech hub, other towns back in lockdown amid COVID-19 surge
- Date: 15th July 2020
- Summary: BENGALURU, KARNATAKA, INDIA (JULY 15, 2020) (ANI - NO USE INDIA) VARIOUS OF EMPTY BUS STATION VARIOUS OF MUNICIPAL BUSES, POLICE AND OTHERS STANDING NEAR BUSES MIGRANTS BOARDING AIRPORT BUS TO GO TO AIRPORT VEHICLES PASSING THROUGH MARKET AREA WOMEN WEARING FACE MASKS WALKING ON LARGELY DESERTED ROAD CLOSED MARKET (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) MIGRANT WORKER IN BENGALURU, PRAHLAD, SAYING: "We didn't know that all of a sudden, a lockdown would be re-imposed. We were told a day before yesterday that a lockdown will be imposed till July 22. So, the buses are not running but we have to go, it's an emergency." PUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA (JULY 15, 2020) (ANI - NO USE INDIA) VARIOUS OF POLICE CHECKING DOCUMENTS BEFORE LETTING VEHICLES PASS (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) POLICE INSPECTOR, SWARGATE POLICE STATION PUNE, SHABBIR SAYYED, SAYING: "We are checking the identity cards of everyone since this morning. We are letting go only those people who are out for some essential work. People are anyway not stepping out needlessly. The people of Pune are following the lockdown rules." ROAD BARRICADES / EMPTY STREET DESERTED MARKET AREA AND CLOSED SHOPS
- Embargoed: 29th July 2020 08:35
- Keywords: Bengaluru COVID-19 India Pune coronavirus lockdown
- Location: BENGALURU, KARNATAKA AND PUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA
- City: BENGALURU, KARNATAKA AND PUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA
- Country: India
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA001CMX54QV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: India's high-tech hub of Bengaluru went back into a coronavirus lockdown for a week on Tuesday (July 14) after a surge of infections, threatening to derail government efforts to revive a stuttering economy.
Places of worship, public transport, government offices and most shops are closed again, and people will be confined to their homes, only allowed out for essential needs.
Schools, colleges and restaurants will remain shut, authorities said.
Bengaluru, home to some of the world's biggest IT firms such as Infosys, had only about 1,000 coronavirus cases in mid-June and was seen to have fared better than other parts of India in terms of testing and contact tracing.
But infections had grown to nearly 20,000 by Monday (July 13), something health experts blamed on the lifting of restrictions in June when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, worried about the economy, ended a nationwide lockdown that had thrown millions of people out of work.
Bengaluru began seeing a surge in infections from late June as both testing and the movement of people picked up, Hephsiba Korlapati, a senior official in the city's COVID-19 response team, told Reuters.
While cases in the main cities of Mumbai and Delhi account for most of the tally, infections are picking up in smaller cities, forcing authorities to re-impose curbs.
The western city of Pune, which is also an industrial and tech hub, began a 10-day shutdown on Monday. Footage from Reuters partner ANI showed police stopping vehicles at a checkpoint to inspect documents and a barricaded street.
According to a Reuters tally as of Wednesday (July 15), India has had 906,752 cases of the novel coronavirus and 23,727 deaths, the third highest number of infections in the world behind Brazil and the United States.
(Production: Angela Johnston) - Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
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