Bengaluru,  Karnataka Revenue Minister R. Ashoka said on Monday that tough measures like a lockdown should continue as long as a city like Bengaluru registers more than 500 Covid cases daily while the state has over 2,500 cases.

After the second Covid wave hit hard in April, the state government enforced a corona curfew from April 27 to May 14. However, with Covid cases still seeing a rapid rise, health experts recommended the state government to enforce a lockdown and since May 10 onwards, the lockdown was imposed for two weeks till May 24. With cases were coming down slowly, the state again enforced a two week lockdown till June 7.

Ashoka, who is also the Vice Chairman of the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA), told reporters it is a positive sign that the number of cases have come down in Bengaluru, the epicentre of Covid for the last several months.

"There are a lot of factors that go in when the state government sits and decides to enforce or revoke such measures (lockdown) as measures like these warrant only during toughest times... Covid is one such bad time," he said.

Answering to a question, Ashoka said that the state government was meeting regularly with experts, officers and other stakeholders to decide about future course of action and final decision on continuing or revoking lockdown would taken only after June 5 or 6 as ongoing lockdown will be coming to an end on July 7.

Meanwhile, Bengaluru civic body BBMP's Chief Commissioner, Gaurav Gupta told reporters that if and when the lockdown measure is revoked, it should be done in a graded manner.

Interacting with media after his meeting with regional and zonal level officers here, he said: "The Bengaluru civic body is for revoking lockdown measures in a phased manner and the same has been recommended to the government too. Covid can only be contained if graded lifting of lockdown is implemented."

He added that after the tough measures in the last two months, Covid has come under control to an extent and the civic body is looking to contain the spread further.

"It would be difficult to single out any sector which needed relaxation as each and every sector is interdependent and needs support from each other. Therefore, the BBMP is in favour of a graded opening of the lockdown," he said.