28-year-old pregnant Kerala nurse stabbed to death in Oman

Mangaluru, May 2: The Dakshina Kannada district administration is gearing up to make necessary arragements at the Mangaluru International Airport as the Centre has shown green signal to bring back stranded Indians from the Gulf countries. 

Karnataka is making efforts to bring back 10,823 people stuck abroad. Apart from Mangaluru, Bengaluru Airport also will be used. As many as 6,100 people will be transported in first stage with speical flights. Soon after their arrival, the administraion will send them to compulsary quarantinement in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Kodagu and other neighbouring districts.

Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateeel said that the govt has made elaborate arrangements to conduct medical test on arrival at the airport. As per plan, based on medical check-up, they will be categorised as group A/B/C. Later, they will be quarantined for the mandated days, he added.

The following is the break-up Kannadigas stranded abroad: 4,408 people are tourists/visitors, 3,074 students, 2,784 migrants/working professionals and 557 shipping crew.

Countries from where stranded people will be brought back to Karnataka in the first stage include Canada (329), the US (927), the UAE (2,575), Qatar (414), and Saudi Arabia (927).

Lucknow, Jul 20: Dr Azizuddin Sheikh, who was fighting COVID-19 as a front line worker, passed away after contracting coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh. He is survived by a wife and three small children. 

40-year-old Dr Azizuddin, who hailed from Rajasthan, was serving as a paediatrician at Avanti Bai Hospital and Duffein Hospital, Lucknow for past few years. He had also worked in the Middle Eastern countries. 

When a large number of doctors preferred to stay home following the covid-19 outbreak, Dr Azizudin was working 16 to 17 hours battling the pandemic. 

According to sources, he tested positive for the covid-19 last month. “After the reports came positive, he had to call the concerned authorities many times to take him to the hospital,” recalled his family members.

He was first admitted to Lok Bandhu Hospital and was later shifted to KGMU after his condition deteriorated. Later he was taken to SGPGIMS.
 
“Despite following all the guidelines and taking every precaution while treating coronavirus patients, he tested positive for the covid-19. It’s a shock for all of us,” he said.

He used to console his family members and instill confidence among them, said one of his relatives. 

A local newspaper quoted his friends as saying that he was very dedicated in serving people that he used to take minimal possible fees from his patients. When the family asked him to increase consultation fees his reply would be, “They are poor people, how will they afford”?

After his death, one of his patients Alok Singh wrote about an incident. “When I asked doctor Sahib why he charges so less, his answer was I have to answer Allah. The truth that he has left us will always be the reason for our grief.”

Bengaluru, Jul 22: Karnataka's Covid-19 task force on Tuesday decided that the state government will regulate the supply of Remdesivir, the drug used in the treatment of coronavirus infected patients, to private hospitals to check black marketing and hoarding.

"Remdesivir which is currently available in the government hospitals will be supplied to private hospitals through the government.

This will help curb black marketing of this drug," Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar's office said in a release.

Along with Sudhakar, other task force members, including Health Minister Sriramulu, Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan and Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar attended the meeting. However, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai was not part of it as he was out of Bengaluru.

At the meeting, the government has also fixed the rate for Covid-19 tests in private labs- Rs 2,000 for government referred cases and 3,000 for self-reporting cases.

It was also decided to purchase 4 lakh antigen test kits and 5 lakh swab test kits to ramp up testing, the release said, adding that approvals have also been given for additional drugs for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

The decisions also included increasing monthly salary for Ayush doctors to 48,000, MBBS doctors to 80,000 and nurses to get 30,000 for next 6 months.

The task force also made it clear that private hospitals have to reserve 50 percent beds for the government for Covid-19 treatment. The remaining 50 percent can be used by the private hospitals for Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 treatment.

Private hospitals provide treatment under Ayushman Bharat scheme (ABARK) for Covid-19 patients.

Those cases in which treatment does not cover under the scheme can be charged as per the user charges, the release said.

A committee will be formed to supervise and recommend the purchase of equipment and medicines for Covid-19 treatment, which will be headed by ACS, ITBT Department.

Approval has been given for the procurement of N-95 masks and lakh PPE kits for the safety of healthcare workers. The decision also has been taken to connect oxygen pipeline to 4,736 beds in 17 government medical colleges, which will enable high flow oxygen for these beds besides being beneficial for future use as well.

According to the release, 16 RTPCR and 15 Automated RNA extraction units will be established to ramp up testing and this will help achieve the target of 50,000 tests per day. "On the whole approvals given for purchase of equipment and upgradation of existing facilities at government hospitals is estimated to be about Rs 500 Crore," it added.