Godhra tragedy: Guj HC reduces death sentence of 11 to life term

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.

Bengaluru, May 18: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Monday said that people from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu will not be allowed in the state till May 31.

"We have decided not to allow entry of people from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu till May 31," Yediyurappa said after a meeting with state ministers and senior government officers to discuss the guidelines issued by the Centre regarding the fourth phase of nationwide lockdown.

"State road transport corporation buses in Karnataka and private buses will run. Strict lockdown measures in containment zones and economic activities will be permitted in other areas. Sundays will be total lockdown across the state. Home quarantine will be strengthened," he added.

The Chief Minister further said that all shops will be allowed to open and all trains running within the state will be permitted.

The central government on Sunday extended the ongoing COVID-19 induced nationwide lockdown till May 31, but with a set of new relaxations commencing from Monday. The Union Home Ministry has also given powers to States/UTs demarcate areas in Green, Orange and Red zones, which will allow them to start activities except in containment zones.

According to the guidelines, "all other activities will be permitted except those which are specifically prohibited under these guidelines. However, in containment zones, only essential activities shall be allowed, as mentioned earlier."

Bengaluru, Jul 5: A 50-year-old woman with breathing difficulties died on Saturday after a shortage of beds forced 12 hospitals to refuse admission.

Her husband Babu said the family had approached 12 hospitals in three days, including Victoria Hospital and other private facilities, who all slammed their doors on them, citing a shortage of beds. The woman died on Saturday, a few minutes into her admission at KC General Hospital.

Second death 

A 35-year-old man, Manjunath, also died on Saturday after enduring fever for three days and being refused admission at several hospitals due to a shortage of beds.

As his condition worsened, his wife admitted him to a private hospital on Saturday after hours of ordeal. But the man died less than 15 minutes after getting admitted. Hospital authorities took swab samples from the deceased and said the body would be handed over after the test results.

BBMP personnel also failed to shift the body of a Covid-19 patient in Kalasipalya almost a day after the death.

Despite civic workers disinfecting the place, the neighbours were in a state of panic after the body was kept at home.