‘Sad that people filmed the stabbing instead of stopping the assailant’

Bengaluru, Jun 6: Karnataka registered 378 Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, breaching the 5,000-mark to settle at 5,213, said an official, here on Saturday. "New cases reported from Friday 5 p.m. to Saturday 6 p.m. is 378," said a health official.

Of the new cases, 333 are local returnees, comprising 88 per cent of the new infections. Returnees from Maharashtra accounted for 99 per cent new cases at 329.

Majority infections in Karnataka nowadays are returnees, mostly from the state''s northern neighbour. Only 27 new infections were contacts of earlier cases.

On Saturday, cases spiked in Udupi, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Bengaluru Urban, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Davangere and Dakshina Kannada.

Udupi witnessed the highest number of cases (121), followed by Yadgir (103), Kalaburagi (69), Dakshina Kannada (24), Bengaluru Urban (18), Vijayapura and Davangere (6 each), Belagavi (5), Gadag (4), Mandya, Hassan, Dharwad and Haveri (3 each), Raichur, Chikkaballapura and Uttara Kannada (2 each) and Bidar, Tumkur, Kolar and Koppal (1 each).

Among the new cases, three patients from Bengaluru Urban are suffering from Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and another from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI).

There were seven cases with international travel history to United Arab Emirates (UAE) and one to Turkey.

Meanwhile, 280 people were discharged in the past 24 hours and two persons succumbed to the virus, one from Bidar and another from Vijayapura. Of all the cases, 3,184 are active, 1,968 discharged, 59 dead and 11 in the ICU.

In the past 24 hours, Karnataka tested 11,862 people, of which 11,431 reports returned negative. In total, 3.72 lakh samples have been tested so far, of which 3.61 lakh have returned negative.

Currently, Udupi is leading the state''s Covid-19 burden with 785 active cases, followed by Kalaburagi (448), Yadgir (407), Raichur (320) and Mandya (163) among others.

Bengaluru Urban has accounted for 13 deaths, followed by Kalaburagi (7), Bidar, Vijayapura, Davangere and Dakshina Kannada (6 each) and Chikkaballapura (3 each), among others.

Hubballi, Mar 31: In a bid to increase the country's capacity for isolation facilities, the Railways is converting sleeper class coaches into isolation wards by modifying the coaches as per prototype issued by Railway Board to make them suitable to act as quarantine hubs. On South Western Railway (SWR) a total of 312 coaches will be converted for isolation/quarantine wards.

"The coaches will be equipped with basic facilities needed as per medical guidelines. Provision is being made for charging points of mobiles and laptops. Mosquito nets with space for paramedics etc are also being made available. Each coach will provide 8 berth cabin for isolation facility.

Zonal Railways have been advised to prepare coaches as per isolation cabin prototype to meet the needs of the patients by Railway Board," a press statement of SWR reads.

The efforts of Indian Railways have been aimed not only to supplement the present health infrastructure of the nation but also to contribute to national efforts to fight the coronavirus.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of coronavirus cases in the country stand at 1,251.

New Delhi, Apr 26: The Centre will bring back the Indian citizens stranded abroad due to the ban on arrival of international passenger aircraft, only if the respective states they belong to agree to allow them to come back home and make necessary arrangements to quarantine them after their return.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has started consultations with the State Governments on bringing back the Indians, who got stranded in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada and many other foreign countries due to the ban on arrival of international passenger aircraft to any airport in the country. The decision on facilitating their return to the country would be taken after getting feedback on preparedness of the States and the Union Territory to receive them following all required health precautions, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba said.

Gauba on Saturday had a video-conference with the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories to review the implementation of the restrictions on travel and transport as well as the lockdown imposed across the country to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though the Government earlier either evacuated or facilitated the return of nearly 28000 Indians from a number of foreign countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, it almost stopped doing so after the ban on arrival of international passenger aircraft was enforced on March 23 in the wake of the spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases in India.

Thousands of Indian students, tourists, professionals and others are stranded around the world, including in the countries, where respective governments had imposed lockdowns to contain the pandemic. They have been desperately requesting the government on social media to evacuate them.