The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Indian state of Karnataka was confirmed on 8 March 2020. Two days later, the state became the first in India to invoke the provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, which was set to last for a year, to curb the spread of the disease. As of 25 October 2022, Karnataka had 4,001,655 confirmed cases and 40,097 deaths. with 3,952,381 recoveries and 9,135 active cases.

Timeline of events

February 2020

On 24 February, an IT professional who worked at a tech park in the outskirts of Bengaluru and stayed in a PG accommodation travelled to Dubai on an assignment on 15 February and returned to Bengaluru on 20 February. He attended office for two days – 20 and 21 February. After taking the bus to Hyderabad, Telangana, his samples had tested positive on 24 February.

March 2020 On 8 March, an employee of Dell who traveled from Texas on 28 February via New York City and Dubai, before arriving at Bengaluru on 1 March, tested positive for coronavirus. His wife and daughter along with one of his colleagues were admitted to a hospital. The colleague showed flu-like symptoms. On 10 March, an employee of Mindtree came back to Bengaluru from an overseas trip. He tested positive. On 12 March, a 26-year-old man, an employee of Google who came from a trip to Greece, was confirmed to be positive for coronavirus, according to the state health department. In addition, his wife did not disclose their travel history and had evaded protocols while traveling back to her hometown of Agra in Uttar Pradesh. The country's first death due to coronavirus was reported from Karnataka after the state confirmed that samples of a deceased 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi were positive. The man had returned from Saudi Arabia on 29 February. On 15 March, the daughter of the 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi who died last week was found to have coronavirus. On 16 March, a 32-year-old man, who returned from the US via London earlier this month, tested positive. He had returned from the US via London on 8 March by the same flight as the patient #4 (Mindtree employee) who had tested positive. On 17 March, three more cases were reported – The first was a 20-year-old woman who had travelled to the United Kingdom. The second one, the 63-year-old doctor who treated the senior citizen who died recently of COVID-19 in Kalaburagi. In another case reported, a 67-year-old female resident of Bengaluru returned from Dubai via Goa on 9 March. She is a known case of chronic kidney disease. On 18 March, three more positive cases were reported in Bengaluru. The first, a 56-year-old man who returned from the US on 6 March. The second, a 26-year-old woman who returned from Spain. The third, a 35-year-old man who returned from US on 10 March. On 19 March, one more positive case confirmed in Kodagu with travel history to Saudi Arabia. The person arrived at Bengaluru from Dubai on 15 March. On 21 March, five positive cases were reported in the state. The first is a 53-year-old woman from Bengaluru. She was a housemaid for case-11, a 67-year-old female who was confirmed as positive on 17 March. The second and the third are from Bengaluru of age 39 and 21 years respectively. The former returned from Amsterdam, Netherlands on 19 March and the latter from Scotland on 17 March. The fourth, a 32-year-old man with travel history to Mecca from Gauribidanur in Chikkaballapura. The fifth is a 35-year-old male from Mysore who arrived at Bengaluru on 19 March from Dubai. On 23 March, seven positive cases were reported in the state. Two of them (P27, P33) are from Kerala with travel history to Dubai and currently being treated at Mysuru & Bengaluru respectively. All remaining five cases are from Bengaluru, four with travel history (P28, P29, P31, P32)- from Dubai, UK, UK and Germany and one being a local transmission – P30 who is the wife of P17. On 24 March, eight new cases were reported including 3 transit passengers of Kerala who had landed in airports and were being treated in Karnataka. On 26 March, four more positive cases were confirmed in the state. P52 from Mysuru has neither travel history nor contact of him with any other positive cases. On 27 March, nine new cases were reported. A 65-year-old man with travel history to Delhi, died in Tumakuru. P56 (10-month-old male child) from Dakshina Kannada had no history of travel to COVID-19-affected countries but was taken by parents to nearby Kerala and investigation is underway for tracing. On 29 March, seven new cases were reported, of which five were from the same pharmaceutical company in Nanjanagudu. This is termed as a cluster, and the town has been put under complete lockdown. On 30 March, five new cases were reported, of which four were from the same pharmaceutical company in Nanjanagudu. P84 from Tumakuru is the son of P60. On 31 March, thirteen new cases were reported, of which two were from the same pharmaceutical company in Nanjanagudu, three were from Ballari and had only been to Bengaluru, and one person in Bengaluru with no travel details is in ICU.

April 2020

On 2 April, fourteen new cases have come out, including 2 from Nanjanagudu and 11 from Tablighi Jamaat meet in Bidar. On 3 April, four new cases including 3 from Belagavi who attended Tablighi Jamaat meet, Delhi and a 70-year-old man from Bagalkot. On 4 April, the 75-year-old man from Bagalkot died. 16 new cases were confirmed. On 10 April, several new SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infection) cases were emerging (8 to date), which became a mystery for the health department. On 12 April, 567 new cases were reported. A new case emerged after 21 days of travel. An unknown cluster seemed to have emerged in Vijayapura. On 23 April, a cluster emerged in Bangalore with 9 contacts of a migrant labourer from Bihar testing positive. On 30 April, 30 new cases were reported.

May 2020 On 4 May, 37 new cases were reported, of which 20 were contacts of P533 in Davanagere, and 7 were contacts of P590 in Bidar.

Early containment efforts On 9 March 2020, the Karnataka state government issued a circular ordering the closure of kindergartens and primary classes in all schools in the state. The minister for primary and secondary Education, S. Suresh Kumar, said that this circular was issued as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus. On 31 March, the Government vide its circular, postponed the examinations for class 7 to 9 as a precautionary measure to avoid spread of coronavirus.

The Chief Minister of Karnataka, B.S. Yediyurappa after the State reporting its first death, issued a directive to close all public places with high footfall such as malls, universities and colleges, movie theatres, night clubs, marriages and conferences, as a precautionary measure amid the growing scare of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Further, the State closed its borders with Kerala for vehicular traffic in the wake of six people testing positive for coronavirus in bordering Kasargod of Kerala.

On Sunday 22 March, after the second meeting of the Task force formed to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government announced further restriction in the form of lockdown of 9 Districts until 31 March. All non-essential services in these districts were suspended. The nine districts where COVID-19 cases were reported were: Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru Urban, Chikkaballapura, Dakshina Kannada, Dharwad, Kalaburagi, Mysuru, Kodagu and Belagavi.

Lockdown Further, to contain community transmission of the virus, the central government decided to enforce a lockdown of the entire country for a period of 21 days beginning 25 March 2020.

Initial lockdown To address the plight of migrant workers and the poor, the Government of Karnataka established a toll-free helpline number – 155214 – for providing food to migrant laborers in the state.

On 11 April, the government issued a circular advising all citizens and health care officials to download, promote and use Aarogya Setu application on their mobile phones to enhance contact tracing of infected persons. The mobile application is designed to give alerts if an infected person comes within the proximity of the person who has installed the application on their phones using Bluetooth and GPS technology.

In line with Governments of India's order, Minority Welfare, Waqf and Hajj Department under Government of Karnataka issued an order on 15 April for suspending all the congressional prayers (Salat) during the month of Ramadan in mosques/Dargahs until 3 May 2020, due to current CoVid-19 pandemic in the state. The order also banned all the eateries near mosques.

Lockdown 2.0 With states in favor of continuing the term of lockdown for another two weeks, during his fourth address to the nation concerning Coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the lockdown until 3 May starting 14 April. However, based on the Centers' guidelines issued, the Chief Minister of Karnataka indicated the decision on relaxation would be taken on 20 April after evaluating the extent of public conformity to the lockdown.

Following up with the message of the extension of the lockdown. The Central Government announced a fresh set of guidelines to be observed by all States.

All places of social gatherings including religious conventions shall be barred. Most of the Agricultural activities shall be exempted and will be allowed to be operated. All Public work programs linked with employment of daily -wage-labours with social-distancing measures in place.

Lockdown 3.0 In line with guidelines issued by the Government of India, the Chief Minister of Karnataka, further extended the lockdown in the state up to 17 May. This time, the Government classified the areas in four main categories: Containment, Red, Orange, and Green zones, based on conducting risk profiling of various districts.

Lockdown 4.0 On 18 May 2020, the Chief Minister of Karnataka announced the continuation of the lockdown in the state up to 31 May 2020. Alongside this, he also gave many relaxations after receiving the guidelines from the central Ministry of Home Affairs. During this phase of the lockdown, most of the activities excluding Shopping Malls, Cinema halls, Hotels, Restaurants were permitted to operate between 7 Am to 7 PM, except on Sundays, as the government decided to enforce a strict lockdown on every Sunday up to 31 May 2020. After a closure of almost two months, all modes of public transport services, including buses, cabs, auto-rickshaws, and intrastate train services were permitted to operate from 19 May 2020. Putting an end to the speculation on raising the fares in state-run buses, due to the limited number of seats in a bus, the Chief Minister said: "We will not increase bus fares for now. KSRTC will bear the losses caused due to carrying a limited number of passengers." In the wake of the spike in the COVID-19 cases reported in the 2020 summer, the government decided to allow people from neighbouring states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala in a restricted manner.

Lockdown exit strategy