BJP retains Hebbal; Jaffer Sharief’s grandson bites dust

Kundapur, Mar 2: A 43-year-old man was arrested by the local police in Udupi district after he allegedly raised pro-Pakistan at Mini Vidhana Soudha in Kundapur today morning.

The man has been identified as Raghavendra Ganiga (43), a resident of Kody in Kundapur. He was working as a Hindi teacher in a private school in the town a few years ago.

According to sources, Ganiga arrived at the Mini Vidhana Soudha at around 10 am and scaled the steps to the building raising 'Pakistan Zindabad' slogans repeatedly.

He continued to raise slogans on the corridor and after entering a hall.  A few people recorded this drama on their mobile phones and informed the police.

Later, Kundapur tahisldar filed a written complaint against with the local police, who took Ganiga into custody.

According to police, Ganiga was under depression after his wife deserted him and left him with their only child.

Bengaluru, Jul 22: On Wednesday morning starlet and Bigg Boss 3 contestant Jayashree Ramaiah sent social media into a tizzy with an update that read, “I quit. Goodbye to this f*****g world and depression.” Friends and acquaintances immediately began reaching out to the actor asking her to return their concerned calls and desist from taking any extreme steps.

“Jayashree has been battling depression for a while now. She had family issues and was also concerned about the lack of work,” shares actor Ashvithi Shetty. The Ramachari twins were in touch with Jayashree since they met at a celebrity cricket match four years ago. “She has shared several times about how low she’s been and I would try to cheer her up. But the problem was that she’d keep changing her phone number so often that it became difficult to keep track of how she was doing,” states Ashvithi.

Around four months ago, Jayashree moved into her own home and mentioned to her that she was happy with this new development in her life. “But she went retreated again and a few days ago, I messaged her on social media and she said she was doing fine. So I was shocked to see this update on Wednesday morning,” avers the actor. Repeated calls finally elicited a message from Jayashree that she was getting admitted to the hospital. “But I also got contradictory information that she had been discharged and had been taken to the hospital again but she was refusing to go inside. I am awaiting more clarity on the issue,” sums up Ashvithi.

Udupi, June 2: The number of positive cases may continue to be more in Udupi district since the results of more than 3,000 samples are pending with Labs.

The district total cases to 260. The figure had seemed far-fetched on May 15, when the number of cases stood at just three. The latest spike has been attributed to the return of migrants from other States as well as from abroad. These samples are from people who returned to the district in the last two weeks.

This delay is because the laboratories testing samples from Udupi are burdened with a high case-load after more than 8,500 people returned to the district, particularly from the neighbouring state of Maharashtra.

"Samples have piled up after the influx of people returning from other states and from abroad," says Dr Prashant Bhat, nodal officer for COVID-19 in Udupi. This delay has caused returnees in institutional quarantine to stay on for as long as 18 days.

The designated laboratory for coronavirus testing in Udupi is Wenlock District Hospital in Mangaluru. The district administration also sends samples to laboratories at the Kasturba Hospital in Manipal, Yenepoya Medical College, Mangaluru, KS Hegde Medical Academy, Mangaluru, and Viral Diagnostic Laboratory in Shivamogga. Apart from Udupi, the laboratory in Manipal is also testing samples from Uttara Kannada district. The laboratory in Shivamogga is also testing samples from Shivamogga and Bijapur districts. The laboratories in Mangaluru, similarly, have samples from Dakshina Kannada district.

Dr Avinash Shetty, Medical Superintendent of Kasturba Hospital in Manipal, one of the private laboratories being used by the Udupi district administration, said that they are testing samples in batches. "We received around 600 samples today and we will be testing them now. The backlog of samples should be cleared in the next few days," Dr Avinash said.

All 73 cases reported in Udupi on Monday were patients with travel history of returning from Maharashtra or patients with travel history of returning from abroad.

In cases of some patients who tested coronavirus positive in the past week, people were released from institutional quarantine after a stipulated period only to be tracked down again and admitted in hospitals after their results returned positive.

While two such cases emerged in Belapu and Belman in the district, the administration is now following up with others who were released from institutional quarantine to ensure they remain in home quarantine till their test results are confirmed.

The spike in cases among returning migrants in Udupi also comes at a time the Karnataka government reduced restrictions on interstate travel.