HDK may undergo heart surgery again

Bengaluru, Mar 4: With the number of Coronavirus positive cases in India increasing, health department officials in Karnataka are working round the clock to keep citizens safe.

But citizens are already panicking with 97 people in Bengaluru rushing to the government-run Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Chest Diseases (RGICD) on Tuesday with symptoms matching the coronavirus.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has now appealed for calm saying there is no coronavirus in the state.

"There is a difference in what appears in the media and what is on the ground. No need to panic. PM Modi is also looking into this. My health minister addressed the media and no one needs to panic. We are ready to tackle the situation," he added.

Dr. Nagaraj, director of RGICD, said the screening process began at the hospital on January 22 and they would see some 15-20 patients and take 5-6 swabs.

"Because of apprehensions, we saw 978 patients and took 27 swabs. We have also admitted 4 patients in the isolation ward," he added.

As of today, there are 5 patients admitted in the isolation ward of RGICD. Two came in close contact with the infected techie in Telengana and three foreign nationals from Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

Tech parks on high alert

At the Manyata Tech Park in the city, a company sent out a circular regarding one of their associates who had travelled from a Level 3 country to India and had flu-like symptoms.

It says that the associate was advised to receive necessary screening and observation as mandated by the Karnataka State Health Department. The associate was screened by an authorized medical agency and determined to be asymptomatic.

As of Wednesday, the company located in the G3 campus of Manyata Tech Park has begun disinfecting and sanitizing the work location and all associates working out of this location have been advised to work from home until March 6.

A statement issued by Embassy spokesperson on March 4 to India Today TV indicated the authorities have activated their response plan.

"As of March 4, we are not aware of a single positive case for the virus in more than 2,00,000 people who work in our business parks. We do understand that one employee of a company at one of our parks who had travelled from a Level 3 country was screened in the last 36 hours and determined to be asymptomatic.

As a precaution, the premises are being disinfected and sanitized. The fact remains, we are not aware of a single confirmed case within over 15 business parks across India," the statement said.

Bengaluru, Apr 1: As many as 12 of the 40 identified people from Karnataka, who attended Tablighi congregation in Nizamuddin, Delhi, have tested negative for COVID-19, state Health Minister B Sriramulu said in a tweet on Wednesday.

It is also learnt that 62 foreigners from Indonesia and Malaysia, who attended the congregation, have visited the State and 12 of them have been quarantined, the tweet said.

''The health department, in association with the Home department, has jointly started the process of identifying all the 300 who attended the event,'' he said.

Bengaluru: Seven fresh Covid 19 positive cases are reported in 24 hours which includes one death from Kalburgi. Of the 7 cases, Kalburgi and Vijayapura share 3 cases each and one case is from Dakshin Kannada, as per the Tuesday mid day health bulletin issued by the Department of Health and Family Welfare.

The deceased has been identified as a 80 year male from Kalburgi. He was bedridden from the past 3 years and was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease since 4 years. Health officials said that he came with the complaint of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) and expired on Monday night.

Along with his death, the total death tally now stands at 17 and the total positive cases in the state is 415.

Kalburgi which recorded the first death for Covid 19 in India has so far reported 4 deaths including the above one. The first slot for recording more deaths in the state is now shared by Bangalore urban district and Kalburgi district with each recording 4 deaths each.

Kalburgi district now has 24 active cases.

All the three cases are females, reported from Vijayapura were the primary contacts of a Corona positive patient (P306), who inturn got infected from a patient with history of SARI.

Apart from the deceased male who tested positive, the other cases from Kalburgi is of 29 year old male with influenza like illness and other case is of a 61 year old male whose source of infection is yet to be traced by the health department.

The case from Dakshin Kannada district is from Bantwala region and the positive patient is a 67 year old female with history of SARI. She is getting treated at designated hospital at Dakshin Kannada.