Karnataka health minister K Sudhakar clarified on Tuesday that the state has has not prohibited inter-state travel between it and Kerala. "Karnataka has not prohibited inter-state travel between Karnataka and Kerala. However, as a precautionary measure, guidelines have been issued that travellers entering Karnataka from Kerala must mandatorily possess a negative RT-PCR test report not older than 72 hours," Sudhakar said in a tweet.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday sought the urgent intervention of the Centre on the new COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the Karnataka government.
In a letter to Modi, Vijayan said, "I request your urgent intervention in this matter so that hardship of people from Kerala travelling to the neighbouring state of Karnataka can be avoided."
Karnataka had last week mandated a negative RT-PCR certificate that is not older than 72 hours for those arriving in the state by flights, buses, trains, personal transport from neighboring Maharashtra and Kerala, following the recent spike in COVID cases there.
Sudhakar on Monday too had clarified that Karnataka had not imposed any restrictions on inter-state travel, but mandated RT-PCR certificates not older than 72 hours for those arriving in the state from neighbouring Kerala and Maharashtra.
Clarifying that no restrictions had been imposed, he said checking negative test reports could have caused some inconvenience to travellers.
The central government on Tuesday said that the new coronavirus variants were not responsible for an upsurge in cases in the states of Maharashtra and Kerala, based on evidence currently available.
Coronavirus infections in India rose by 14,199 in the past 24 hours to more than 11 million, according to health ministry data. Deaths rose by 83 to 156,385.
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