Amit Shah to visit communally sensitive areas of Mangaluru on Aug 21

Mangaluru: As many as 178 passengers arrived in the coastal city from Dubai as the second flight under the Vande Bharat Mission landed at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) at 7.55am on Monday.

Among 178 passengers, there were 99 male, 67 female, 11 children and one infant.

Dakshina Kannada deputy commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh said that all the necessary arrangements had been made to ensure that the passengers were not inconvenienced in any way. 

“All of them have been provided with health kits, sufficient food, sim cards, etc. We have also set up facilities at the airport where they can exchange foreign currency. The emigration process was conducted only after each passenger was subjected to screening by health department personnel at the airport. We will have their throat swabs tested for Covid-19 on Tuesday,” Sindhu said.

Personnel attired in personal protective equipment gear shifted the passengers’ luggage, while buses had been arranged for transporting them to quarantine facilities, Sindhu added.

Probationary IAS officer Rahul Shinde, additional deputy commissioner MJ Roopa, district health officer Dr Ramachandra Bairy and MIA director VV Rao were among those who received the returning Indians along with the DC at the airport.

Public, including friends and relatives of the passengers, were barred entry to the airport.

Rooms in as many as 10 hotels have been reserved to quarantine passengers flying in to Mangaluru from the Gulf. The rooms are priced between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,400. Meanwhile, those unable to afford rent will be accommodated at government hostels.

Mangaluru, May 18: The second repatriation flight to the coastal Karnataka from Dubai landed at Mangaluru International Airport at 7.45 pm. today.Mangaluru: As many as 178 passengers arrived in the coastal city from Dubai as the second flight under the Vande Bharat Mission landed at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) at 7.55am on Monday.

Dakshina Kannada deputy commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh said that all the necessary arrangements had been made to ensure that the passengers were not inconvenienced in any way.

“All of them have been provided with health kits, sufficient food, sim cards, etc. We have also set up facilities at the airport where they can exchange foreign currency. The emigration process was conducted only after each passenger was subjected to screening by health department personnel at the airport. We will have their throat swabs tested for Covid-19 on Tuesday,” Sindhu said.

Personnel attired in personal protective equipment gear shifted the passengers’ luggage, while buses had been arranged for transporting them to quarantine facilities, Sindhu added.

Probationary IAS officer Rahul Shinde, additional deputy commissioner MJ Roopa, district health officer Dr Ramachandra Bairy and MIA director VV Rao were among those who received the returning Indians along with the DC at the airport.

Public, including friends and relatives of the passengers, were barred entry to the airport.

Rooms in as many as 10 hotels have been reserved to quarantine passengers flying in to Mangaluru from the Gulf. The rooms are priced between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,400. Meanwhile, those unable to afford rent will be accommodated at government hostels.

Bengaluru, Mar 7: Karnataka on Friday announced that there are no positive cases of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19 in the state till date.

"To date, 717 persons have been identified for observation, of them, 236 persons have completed 28 days of observation and 469 persons are continuing under home quarantine. 8 persons are admitted to selected isolation hospitals, " the state government said in a release today.

"Around 343 samples of symptomatic persons are sent for testing and 296 samples are reported as negative. No positive cases of Coronavirus in the state to date," it said.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa earlier in the week assured people in state about the preparedness to tackle coronavirus.

He said, "We have issued instructions to all hospitals. We have made all the arrangements. People in Karnataka should not worry."

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan earlier today held a review meeting with states over preparedness for coronavirus. State governments have been asked to keep the testing and quarantine facilities, isolation wards and labs in active readiness.

The country's total number of positive cases of coronavirus touched 31 today. COVID-19 has so far killed more than 3200 people globally.

San Diego, Apr 15: Several people lost their sense of smell or taste weeks ago globally and are still waiting for it to come back and now, researchers have identified an association between sensory loss and novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) infection, indicating that loss of smell and taste may be considered as early symptoms of the deadly disease.

Interestingly, the study also found that persons who reported experiencing a sore throat more often tested negative for COVID-19.

The team from University of California-San Diego found high prevalence and unique presentation of certain sensory impairments in patients positive with COVID-19.

Of those who reported a loss of smell and taste, the loss was typically profound, not mild.

"Based on our study, if you have smell and taste loss, you are more than 10 times more likely to have COVID-19 infection than other causes of infection. The most common first sign of a COVID-19 infection remains fever, but fatigue and loss of smell and taste follow as other very common initial symptoms," explained study researcher Carol Yan from UC San Diego.

"We know COVID-19 is an extremely contagious virus. This study supports the need to be aware of smell and taste loss as early signs of COVID-19," Yan added.

For the findings, published in the journal International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology, the research team surveyed 1,480 patients with flu-like symptoms and concerns regarding potential COVID-19 infection who underwent testing at UC San Diego Health from March 3 through March 29, 2020.

Within that total, 102 patients tested positive for the virus and 1,378 tested negatives. The study included responses from 59 COVID-19-positive patients and 203 COVID-19-negative patients.

Encouragingly, the rate of recovery of smell and taste was high and occurred usually within two to four weeks of infection.

"Our study not only showed that the high incidence of smell and taste is specific to COVID-19 infection but we fortunately also found that for the majority of people sensory recovery was generally rapid," said Yan.

"Among the COVID-19 patients with smell loss, more than 70 per cent had reported improvement of smell at the time of the survey and of those who hadn't reported improvement, many had only been diagnosed recently," she added.

Sensory return typically matched the timing of disease recovery.

In an effort to decrease the risk of virus transmission, UC San Diego Health now includes loss of smell and taste as a screening requirement for visitors and staff, as well as a marker for testing patients who may be positive for the virus.

"It is our hope that with these findings other institutions will follow suit and not only list smell and taste loss as a symptom of COVID-19, but use it as a screening measure for the virus across the world," Yan said.