Women lead massive protest demanding liquor ban in Karnataka

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.

Bengaluru, Jun 3: The Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences at Hubballi has successfully treated a COVID-19 patient through plasma therapy, state medical education minister K Sudhakar said today.

"Karnataka achieves yet another milestone in battle against #COVID19. KIMS Hubli has successfully treated a Covid19 patient through Plasma Therapy & is the first institute in the state to accomplish this. Congrats to KIMS doctors & staff for this feat!" Mr Sudhakar tweeted.

In plasma therapy treatment, plasma cells from a COVID-19 patient, who has recovered from the disease, is transfused to a coronavirus patient who is in critical condition to treat him.

Plasma therapy was effectively used in the past during Ebola and the Spanish flu pandemic.

Mangaluru, Feb 13: After pro-Kannada outfits called for a state-wide bandh today, the police are on high-alert to avoid any untoward incidents.

The dawn to dusk bandh was called demanding implementation of Sarojini Mahishi report which recommended certain percentage of jobs to Kannadigas in private & public sector companies.

There is no official holiday declared for schools and colleges. Besides, all government institutions and private establishments are open.

But, in some parts of Karnataka, autorickshaws and taxis, including Ola and Uber stayed off the roads.

Even though the bandh is unlikely to hit normal life in coastal Karnataka, stones were pelted on a Tirupati-Mangaluru bus in Farangipet.