Amity University confers honorary doctorate on Thumbay Moideen

Bengaluru, Jun 17: Amid rising COVID cases in the past two weeks, the Karnataka government is planning to increase testing capacity to 25,000 samples a day, said a minister.

"Due to increase in cases in the last two weeks, the government is trying to scale up testing to 15,000 to 25,000 samples per day," said Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar.

He said people living in crowded places, sanitation workers, street vendors, healthcare workers, police and other frontline staff would be extensively tested.

"It has also been decided to mandatorily test all those who have symptoms of Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI)," he said.

Similarly, all people over 50 with ILI symptoms will be tested.

The health department will also randomly test samples in old containment zones to make sure that the infection is not recurring.

Currently, there are 72 Covid testing labs in the southern state, 41 government operated and 31 private labs.

However, for a few days, the number of Covid tests in the state have plummeted.

On Monday, the health department has tested only 5,362 samples across the state.

Likewise, on Tuesday, only 7,936 samples were tested, diverging from earlier weeks when around 10,000 cases were tested on an average.

In all, 4.57 lakh samples have been tested so far, of which 4.39 lakh have tested negative.

Mangaluru, May 8: Dr Arathi Krishna, former deputy chairman of Karnataka NRI Forum, today called on Karnataka chief secretary Vijaya Bhaskar and urged him to exert pressure on the Centre through chief minister to expedite evacuation of Kannadigas stuck in Saudi Arabia amidst covid-19 lockdown. 

She also conveyed the message from labourers in Gulf countries requesting for free quarantine facility upon their arrival. Positively responding to the demand, Mr Bhaskar said that free quarantine facility will be arranged at BSF base in Bengaluru apart from paid quarantine facility in different hotels and guest houses.

Dr Arathi Krishna told coastaldigest.com that she also spoke to the officials in-charge of Gulf in the Ministry of External Affairs  and requested them to take necessary steps to add more special flights from Gulf countries to Karnataka. 

The officials have promised to consider operating flight from Riyadh to Mangaluru via Dammam in the second wave of evacuation, the schedule of which is expected to be announced in a few days, she said.

Bengaluru, Jan 19: The Karnataka government has given its nod to teach 'Vivekadeepini' slokhas, authored by Adi Shankaracharya, in schools across the state, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said on Saturday.

At an event called 'Vivekadeepini Mahasamarpane,' organised by Vedanta Bharati, Yediyurappa said, "It has been noticed that Vivekadeepini, which evolves the mind and illumines a person, has a great effect on students.

Parents and teachers have found a positive change among children who were inspired by Vivekadeepini." "Hence, the government has given its nod to allow teaching Vivekadeepini in the schools in Karnataka," he added.

According to the organisers of the event, around two lakh children from 50 schools participated in the event where they were taught to chant Vivekadeepini, comprising verses for the seekers in the spiritual journey.

Yediyurappa reminded the audience that the Indian culture and civilisation is the oldest and the best, which they should feel proud of. Likening Amit Shah to the first union home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, he said, "After Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel if we have seen a union home minister, it is Amit Shah, who has successfully resolved many burning issues of the countries within a few months.

"Shah succeeded in finding a permanent solution to Kashmir issue," Yediyurappa said.