Indian culture, Ayurveda bring this Russian actress to Udupi

Bengaluru, May 25: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday greeted the Muslim brethren on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, which is being celebrated in a subdued manner due to coronavirus related restrictions.

"Warm greetings of Eid-ul-Fitr. May this festival of peace and harmony bring happiness in life," Yediyurappa said in his message.

He congratulated the Muslim fraternity for cooperating with the authorities by offering prayers at home during the holy month of Ramadan and supporting the government to contain COVID-19.

"I hope the same trend will continue during the festivities of Eid-ul-Fitr too. I thank you all for your support in the fight against COVID-19," he said.

The Eid festivities were a low-key affair as Muslim brethren celebrated the festival indoors in view of lockdown to contain coronavirus on Monday.

People offered the special prayers inside their houses instead of performing it in mosques and Eidgah, the open field to perform prayers, and refrained from going out to greet each other.

As the Karnataka government has ordered Sunday Curfew throughout the lockdown-4 till May 31, the otherwise bustling markets in the urban areas of Karnataka remained shut.

People could not venture out to make necessary purchases on Sunday.

The Jama Masjid of Bengaluru at the City Market had asked the Muslims to offer prayers inside their houses and not go to the burial grounds to express their sentiments for the departed souls.

"Mass prayers are not allowed anywhere in Karnataka. Just five important persons managing the mosques offered the prayers. Similarly, people go to the graveyard to pray for the dead ones but this time we asked people to express their sentiments from inside their homes instead of going to the burial grounds," Maulana Maqsood Imran, the Khateeb-O-Imam, Jama Masjid, Bengaluru, told news agency.

He said, "coronavirus is spreading very rapidly in our country. If we don't follow the guidelines, it will not only cause trouble to us but also to the doctors and the government. It will be the biggest celebration if we abide by the norms."

Mangaluru, Mar 22: A video being circulated in the social media purportedly of a man infected with COVID-19 at a hospital here is fake, its authorities said.

The video which shows a youth, dressed in pink trousers and wearing a mask, struggling to breathe on a blue hospital bed, had gone viral after which the Wenlock hospital issued a clarification.

The video started circulating after Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner made public Sunday that a person has tested positive for coronavirus at the hospital.

Follow live updates of coronavirus cases in India here

"A video of a patient convulsing on a hospital bed is being circulated on social media. This video is not of Wenlock hospital. Besides, we do not use blue beds," the hospital said in a statement, adding that they will file a complaint with the police regarding the video.

The first COVID-19 case in the district was confirmed at the hospital on Sunday.

The 22-year old man who came here from Dubai was tested positive and is under treatment in the isolation ward.

Bengaluru, May 23: SSLC and PUC students residing in containment zones will not be able to write the exams scheduled to be held in June and July, respectively, but will be given opportunity to write the supplementary examination and treated as fresh candidates.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar announced this at a press conference on Friday.

In turn, officials in the Department of Primary and Secondary Education will start collecting the list of students in containment zones. However, they are worried since the list of containment zones is dynamic and a particular locality can be declared a containment zone even the night before the examination.

“If any examination centre is located in the containment zone, then we can change the centre and move it to a non-containment zone. However, if a student resides in a zone that is declared containment zone just before the exam, there is no option but for the person to skip the exam,” an official said.

Officials of the department are worried about another scenario as well. “There is a chance that midway through the examination, an area is becomes a containment zone. Then some students may write a few papers and give the rest a miss. Implementation at the district- and block-levels will be a challenge,” said an official.

Sources said that the department is working out several situations that may arise and trying to work on providing practical solutions to the students.

Around 5.98 lakh students have registered for the second pre-university English examination that is scheduled to be held on June 18. As many as 8.48 lakh students have registered for the SSLC examination scheduled to be held between June 25 and 4 July. Currently, there are 261 containment zones in Karnataka that have 5.49 lakh people residing in these zones.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka Secondary Education and Examination Board has decided to ensure that only 18 students are seated in a classroom to write the SSLC examination. This is to ensure that social distancing is maintained in the exam hall.