Hubli (Karnataka) [India], January 16 (ANI): Roads in Karnataka's Hubli wore a deserted look and market places fell silent on Sunday morning with the weekend curfew clamped in the state to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The police had barricaded most arterial roads and stopped motorists without valid reasons for travelling.

Karnataka recorded 32,793 new cases of Covid-19, and 7 fatalities on Saturday, taking the tally to 31,86,040 and the death toll to 38,418.

In view of the surge in COVID cases, the Karnataka government had decided to extend guidelines till the end of the month.

The decision has been taken after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday chaired a review meeting on the COVID situation via video conferencing in Bengaluru.

Ministers Dr K Sudhakar, BC Nagesh, Araga Dnyanendra and senior officials attended the meeting.The rise in cases among school children was also discussed in the meeting. A decision was also taken to authorise the Deputy Commissioners of respective districts to take a call on closing schools based on the number of cases, reports from the BEOs and Health officers.

Officials are instructed to arrange children's ward, ICUs and other treatment facilities for children at Taluk and District hospitals. Education and Health department officials asked to conduct a general health checkup in schools every fortnight.

Karnataka has effectively leveraged technology in Covid battle and so far about 2.5 lakh healthcare and frontline staff have been trained through online platforms so far. This is model to the entire country, said Health and Medical Education Minister Dr.K.Sudhakar.

Dr.Sudhakar inaugurated the virtual training program being conducted in association with StepOne for about 10,000 medical, dental and ayush students to train them in home isolation care and addressed the students.

During the first wave it was necessary to provide training to healthcare workers about the new virus. But due to lockdown and other reasons when it was not feasible to conduct physical training we trained about 2.5 lakh healthcare and front line staff though online with the help of RGUHS. Even Central govt had appreciated Karnataka's efforts to leverage technology.(ANI)