Hadiya, who was tortured for embracing Islam and marrying a Muslim, is now a doctor

Bengaluru, Apr 18: The Indian Council of Medical Research has approved 16 laboratories, comprising 11 government and five private laboratories in Karnataka, for testing the samples of COVID-19 suspected cases, the state government said on Saturday.

Meetings and negotiations were held with some private laboratories for conducting COVID-19 sample testing, additional chief secretary (health and family welfare) Jawaid Akhtar said in a circular.

"Based on the negotiations, the cost per test has been fixed at Rs 2,250," the circular read.

These private labs have to abide by the conditions laid down by the state and union governments, it added.

Bengaluru, Jul 19: The Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwathnarayan on Saturday inspected the country's first modular Intensive Care Unit (ICU) containers.

A notice from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said that the new mobile modular container ICUs, which will be used in the fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, have been created by Rinac India Limited, known for setting up sanitised operation theatres and clean rooms in hospitals.

On a pilot basis, the Deputy CM, who is also in charge of setting up COVID-care centres, said that 10 modular container ICUs will be deployed at the KC General Hospital in Malleshwaram. Each of the containers will have five beds.

Deputy CM Ashwathnarayan also said, "These mobile ICUs donated by Rinac will be useful, particularly in times of a crisis like COVID 19 or any natural calamity."

"The entry of health officials will be through an airlock, and entry of patients will be through a different door. There will be two doors for patients and can be increased if need. ICUs are fitted with cameras to monitor online from a centralized monitoring station, thereby limiting the exposure of the health personnel," the CMO informed.

The CMO further added, "the advantages of this new system are that the prefabricated modules of 5 can be shifted to any location by trailers and it is easy to deploy multiple containers to create a common facility. They are easy to clean and the airtight functionality ensures that no moisture or heat ingression happens, hence, it is easy to air-condition or ventilate."

Kalaburagi, Apr 9: An FIR has been lodged against the management and staff of Bahamani Super Speciality Hospital here in Kalaburagi allegedly for not following procedures meant to deal with COVID-19 and hiding details of patients with coronavirus symptoms, said District Deputy Commissioner Sharath B on Wednesday.

The district family welfare department official and nodal officer of KPME Kalaburagi took cognisance of the reports that the private hospitals in the district are not informing the government about patients having COVID-19 symptoms and they are only reporting about such cases at the last moment.

"It has come to our light that some private hospitals in Kalaburagi city are hiding information about the patients who are having COVID-19 like symptoms and these cases are not being reported on time to us," said the District Deputy Commissioner.

"We verified the records of these hospitals and it is clear now that they are revealing the serious cases in the last moment when the treatment has not given any help to patients. Only then such cases are bringing to ESI hospital in Kalaburagi. We have taken steps to quarantine the entire staff member of Bahamani hospital. We have taken legal steps against them for non-compliance of the orders issued to them and for not reporting this matter to us at the earliest stage," he said.

A case has been registered under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 column 51, 58 and sections 269 and 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

He further said that two new cases were reported positive on April 8 and one person has succumbed to the infection because he was having a severe respiratory infection.
He appealed to everyone to strictly follow lockdown restrictions and not violate Section 144 at any cost.

Speaking about the attacks on Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and Anganwadi workers, who were given a task to collect travel details of locals in view of coronavirus crisis, Sharath said: "Some of the health workers, ASHA and Anganwadi workers, who have been given a task to going from door to door to verify health status were troubled unnecessarily, saying that they have come to collect data for NRC and NPR."

"They are doing a survey on behalf of the district administration as they have to gather travelling information so that a person can be quarantined to contain COVID-19 spread. There has been an attack, a case has been registered in this regard," he said.