20 special flights from Saudi to India announced; 3 and a half to Bengaluru; Sorry Mangaluru

Udupi, May 19: Within minutes after health and family welfare department announced four fresh covid-19 cases in Udupi district, a girl who had come from central part of Karnataka tested positive for the coronavirus thereby taking the count of cases detected after last evening to five. 

With this the total number of confirmed covid-19 cases in the district rose to 16. Three among them have recovered. One patient died last week. There are 12 active cases. 

According to sources, the 17-year-old girl from Chitradurga had visited KMC hospital in Manipal for cancer treatment on May 16. 

Her throat swabs were sent for corona testing on the following day. Today she obtained a positive report. Hence, she was shifted to Dr TMA Pai Covid hospital.

Bengaluru, Apr 28: Karnataka has found that the rapid antibody test kits for COVID-19 that the Centre supplied to the state have only 47% sensitivity. The state will be returning the kits to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Karnataka had received 11,400 rapid antibody test kits from the ICMR a few days back, out of which it had sent around 200 of them to NIMHANS for validation.

After the ICMR, on Monday, sent a circular to all states to return the test kits to the suppliers, Dr CN Manjunath, Director, Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, and nodal officer for lab testing in the state's COVID-19 task force, said, "We have cancelled the orders we placed to Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech and Zhuhai Livzon Diagnostics for one lakh rapid antibody test kits. Since the ICMR supplied us with 11,400 kits out of the 6.5 lakh kits it procured, we will be returning the kits to them."

Manjunath told said that the validation at NIMHANS revealed the kits to have only 47% sensitivity. Sensitivity is the ability of a test to identify the true-positives in a population, i.e., the actual number of people who've been infected with the disease. With the rapid antibody testing kits being shelved, the state's plan to randomly test high risk groups has taken a backseat. 

So far, the state has tested 43,791 samples. 

Karnataka now has 22 testing facilities -- 14 government and seven private labs. Many private labs have not tested any samples so far because of the lack of test kits (the state has made it clear that it will not provide test kits to private labs). So, getting an ICMR approval for testing has become a moot point.p

Agreeing to the setback the state's plans of ramping up testing has taken, Manjunath said, "It is true that RT-PCR test kits are in shortage. Even Pune's Mylabs had a shortage in supplying test kits. But we are relying on institutes like Kidwai, Narayana Health and Biocon's Syngene that have received approval for testing. They're big institutes and we hope that they will test a large number of samples."

On reports that the Centre has RT-PCR test kits that will last for only a week, he said, "We have test kits that will last for eight to 10 days. We have ordered for more. We are hoping to receive them before the current kits run out."

Mandya, Jul 24: Pressing for a total ban on stone mining and quarrying in and around the villages surrounding Krishna Raja Sagar Dam in the District, many organisations have called for Mandya bandh on July 29.

The bandh has been supported by Raitha Sangha, Karunada Sevakara Sanghatane, Auto Drivers Association, Jaya Karnataka, Bharatiya Samvidhana Hitharakshana Vedike, Sugarcane Growers Association, Vokkaligara Seva Trust and Dalita Sangarsh Samiti (Krishnappa faction).

The activists said that the State Government must immediately take steps and permanently ban mining in 20 km radius around KRS as continuous blasting for stones is causing grave danger to the structure.