The Karnataka government Thursday in pursuit to strictly filter inbound passengers to the State have restricted air travel from five Coronavirus hotspot States — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. There is almost a no-entry for people coming by road from three States to contain a rise in COVID-19 cases. Trains are, however, to continue normally.

“This is in view of several passengers from these states testing positive for Covid-19 in Karnataka, leading to a rise in fresh cases in the state in the last few days,” Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy was quoted as saying after a Cabinet meeting in Bengaluru.

Madhuswamy further pointed out that asymptomatic cases from these States are burdening the quarantine facilities in Karnataka. The restriction is temporary but imminent for the time being seeing the sudden hike in numbers and delaying the test to be completed.

However, there is no restriction on people traveling from Karnataka to these said States,.

Karnataka has observed that most fresh COVID-19 cases are among people coming from other States. When it took almost three months since March 9 to cross 1000-mark in the State on May 15, the number jumps to 2,533 as on Thursday.

Madhuswamy has also reportedly clarified that the Karnataka government “had not announced a complete ban” on flights from the five States, and instead decided to “lessen air traffic” to the State.

“The state government has requested the Civil Aviation Ministry to reduce the number of flights from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to Karnataka, in view of the high number of Covid-19 Cases prevalent there,” Madhuswamy was quoted from the media briefing he had after the cabinet meeting in Bengaluru.

Madhuswamy has requested to Narendra Modi government to formalise the measures to cut down air traffic to Karnataka, in the view of insufficient quarantine facilities if there is an overwhelming turnout in a short time.

He stressed that “restrictions” have also been imposed on people coming by road from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat to ensure enough quarantine facilities.

Thursday 95 out of the 115 fresh cases reported are from inter-state passengers, according to the Health Department data.