Dalit voters shift their loyalty to Saffron party in Karnataka

Bengaluru, Jul 17: Karnataka Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar held a meeting through video conference on Thursday with private and government establishments involved in testing and treatment of COVID-19 in the state.

A total of 51,422 cases including 19,729 recoveries and 1,032 deaths were reported in the state till yesterday.

On the same day, K Sudhakar also paid a surprise visit to the Bengaluru's CV Raman Hospital and urged the administration to follow COVID-19 guidelines properly. He also took stock of the hospital's preparedness to fight the deadly virus.

"Surprise visits will continue. I will be in touch with every lab and get the right number of tests done on a daily basis," the minister said while speaking to the media.

He also urged the people who have recovered from coronavirus to donate their plasma to save other lives, adding that donors will receive a reward of Rs 5,000 as a token of appreciation.

Bengaluru, Apr 18: The Karnataka government has fixed the cost of test for COVID-19 in private laboratories at Rs 2,250, an official said on Friday.

"Based on the discussions and negotiations, the cost per test has been fixed at Rs 2,250. This includes the screening test and a confirmatory test," said order by Health and Family Welfare Department's Additional Chief Secretary Jawaid Akhtar.

A total of 16 laboratories (11 government and 5 private) have been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for testing samples of possible COVID-19 cases in the state.

Realising that early detection of coronavirus cases and timely treatment was the need of the hour, meetings were held to rope in more private laboratories to conduct COVID-19 sample tests.

As per the protocol by the Centre, testing the samples of suspected COVID-19 cases can be taken up in private laboratories subject to conditions which include sharing the lab data pertaining to the diagnosis of COV1D-19 with the state government and with the ICMR on a timely basis.

As per the Union Health Ministry, 353 people have infected from coronavirus in the state of which 83 are cured and discharged and 13 succumbed to the virus.

Kochi, Apr 18: The Centre on Friday informed the Kerala High Court that there was no immediate plan to bring back the Indian citizens stranded in the Gulf countries due to the novel coronavirus outbreak and that the expatriates had been granted visa extension.

The counsel for the central government made the submission before a division bench comprising justices Rajavijayaraghavan and T R Ravi during the hearing of a plea seeking a direction to bring back Indians stranded in the UAE.

Permission of the Gulf countries was required to send medical teams there to carry out medical examination of the stranded Indians, the counsel said when the court sought to know the Centre's view on Kerala government sending medical teams to the Gulf countries to deal with the issue of COVID-19 disease among Malayalees there.

The court posted the plea for April 21 for consideration after the Central government informed that a similar petition is under consideration of the Supreme Court.

In its plea, Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC) in Dubai, the organisation for non-resident Indians from Kerala, sought directions to the Ministries of External Affairs and Civil Aviation to provide exemptions in the international air travel ban to bring back Indians stranded in the UAE.

The petitioners noted that those who return could be kept in quarantine as per the protocol of the World Health Organisation (WHO).