HDK to go ahead with son's wedding on April 17 with precautionary measures against COVID-19

Mangaluru, Feb 5: The New Mangalore Port implemented the Centre's Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) by screening the crew of cargo ships and passengers of Cruise Vessel for the highly contagious and deadly disease Coronavirus.

Sources in the port said that screening was being carried out at the harbour since the past few days, as a precautionary measure. All the 1,800 passengers and 786 crew of Cruise Vessel 'Costa Victoria,' which stopped at the port, were screened.

Arrangements were also made for screening foreign nationals arriving at the Mangalore International Airport (MIA). 

Besides screening, passengers were also made aware of the Coronavirus and the precautionary steps to be taken.

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 24: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said that there is no community spread or the expected phase three spread of coronavirus in the state so far but the threat continues.

Speaking to media persons here on Thursday, Vijayan said that Kasargod, Kannur, Kozhikode, and Malappuram districts will be in the red zone with full restrictions.

"All the other ten districts in the State will be in the orange zone. With the detection of new cases today, the status of Kottayam and Idukki districts have been changed from green to orange. The district administration will decide on the hotspot areas to be closed," he said.

He said there would be an increase in the number of random tests in the red zones.

"In an effort to confirm that there is no community spread in the State, random antibody tests would be conducted among health workers, police personnel, home delivery persons, volunteers and migrant labourers," he added.

The Chief Minister said that COVID-19 labs set up at the Pariyaram Government Medical College at Kannur and the Kottayam Medical College have got the approval from the ICMR for coronavirus testing. The lab at Kannur Medical College will start functioning from Friday.

The UV sterilised lab, spread over 2,200 sq ft is equipped with four real-time PCR machines. In the first phase, this lab will be able to do 15 tests per day, which will be gradually increased to conduct 60 tests in the next phase.

"With the opening of these two new labs, tests to detect COVID-19 will be conducted in 14 government labs in Kerala. Apart from this, there are two private labs also in Kerala which are doing these tests. Since the number of coronavirus cases is again increasing in the State, the government has decided to procure ten real-time PCR machines to ramp up testing," he added.

Bengaluru, Jul 24: Karnataka Government on Friday issued an order regarding the refixation of rates for RT-PCR testing and Rapid Antigen testing for private laboratories in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state induced Task Force Committee has revised the rate of RT-PCR testing to cost Rs 2,000 per test and Rapid Antigen testing for private samples to cost Rs 700 per sample.

Ceiling rate for private samples in private laboratories including screening test and confirmatory test is Rs 3,000 per test, read the order

The cost is inclusive of the price of Personal protective equipment (PPE) kit, stated the government in the order.

Karnataka has reported 5,007 new COVID-19 positive cases and 110 deaths on Friday.

The total number of cases stands at 85,870 including 52,791 active cases and 1,724 deaths, added the state Government.