Hate speech: Jagadish Karanth granted interim bail hours after arrest

Bengaluru, Mar 19: To better enforce social distancing and prevent further spread of Covid-19, the Karnataka health and family welfare department on Wednesday said it will "stamp the back of the palm" of international passengers advised to be on home quarantine, along with the date they are allowed to get out of home. The stamping process began at 12am Thursday.

Pankaj Kumar Pandey, commissioner, health and family welfare, said: "It is noted that a few passengers under home quarantine are not following the instructions. Therefore, it has been decided to stamp the back of the palm of their left hand with a specially designed stamp which will indicate the last day of quarantine."

He said the special stamp will use an indelible ink and "airports in Karnataka have been instructed to follow this without fail". On average, about 3,000 people are arriving in Bengaluru on international flights every day.

The department said social distancing is the only known method of combating the spread of Covid-19 and added, "International passengers are segregated as symptomatic and asymptomatic."

High-risk flyers kept at mass quarantine unit

The symptomatic passengers (Group-A) are taken to designated hospitals; asymptomatic ones, depending on the port of origin, are taken to the quarantine centre or permitted to go on home quarantine.

At the mass quarantine centre, the asymptomatic passengers are divided into moderate-risk (Group-B) and high-risk (Group-C) categories.

“The high-risk passengers are kept at a mass quarantine centre for medical observation. The moderate-risk passengers are being sent for home quarantine where they need to spend 14 days,” the statement added.

Pandey said: “International passengers changing flights within the country cannot be stopped. Ideally, they should be stamped at the first port of entry when they arrive from a foreign country which is not happening.” He said this issue will be brought to the notice of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation.

Mangaluru, Jul 9: The coastal district of Dakshina Kannada today recorded death of two coronavirus patients.

Meanwhile, the district today also recorded 167 new covid cases taking the total number of cases to 1701.

Yesterday, the district had recorded 183 cases. Today more cases were reported from Bantwal and Ullal regions. 

According to sources, a 48-year-old man from Boloor, who was under treatment for covid-19 at designated covid hospital passed away today. 

A 62-year-old covid patient, who had SARI symptoms, breathed his last at a private hospital.

With this, the total number of deaths of covid-19 patients in the district reached 30 including two deaths caused by other reasons.

Of the 167 who tested positive on Thursday, 110 are males and 57 females including seven children.

Three have returned from Qatar and Dubai, one from Bengaluru, 42 are diagnosed with influenza-like illness (ILI), six are diagnosed with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) and 64 are primary contacts of earlier patients. Contact tracing process of 38 patients is on, and 13 pre-surgery samples.

Washington, Jun 11: Observing that historically India has been a tolerant, respectful country for all religions, a top Trump administration official has said the US is "very concerned" about what is happening in India over religious freedom.

The comments by Samuel Brownback, Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom, came hours after the release of the "2019 International Religious Freedom Report" on Wednesday.

Mandated by the US Congress, the report documenting major instances of violation of religious freedom across the world was released by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department.

India has previously rejected the US religious freedom report, saying it sees no locus standi for a foreign government to pronounce on the state of its citizens' constitutionally protected rights.

"We do remain very concerned about what's taking place in India. It's historically just been a very tolerant, respectful country of religions, of all religions," Mr Brownback said during a phone call with foreign journalists on Wednesday.

The trend lines have been troubling in India because it is such a religious subcontinent and seeing a lot more communal violence, Mr Brownback said. "We're seeing a lot more difficulty. I think really they need to have a - I would hope they would have an - interfaith dialogue starting to get developed at a very high level in India, and then also deal with the specific issues that we identified as well," he said.

"It really needs a lot more effort on this topic in India, and my concern is, too, that if those efforts are not put forward, you're going to see a growth in violence and increased difficulty within the society writ large," said the top American diplomat.

Responding to a question, Mr Brownback said he hoped minority faiths are not blamed for the COVID-19 spread and that they would have access to healthcare amid the crisis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has criticised any form of discrimination, saying the COVID-19 pandemic affects everyone equally. "COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or border before striking. Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood," PM Modi said in a post on LinkedIn in February.

The government, while previously rejecting the US religious freedom report, had said: "India is proud of its secular credentials, its status as the largest democracy and a pluralistic society with a longstanding commitment to tolerance and inclusion".

"The Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all its citizens, including its minority communities… We see no locus standi for a foreign entity/government to pronounce on the state of our citizens' constitutionally protected rights," the Foreign Ministry said in June last year.

According to the Home Ministry, 7,484 incidents of communal violence took place between 2008 and 2017, in which more than 1,100 people were killed.