HDK may undergo heart surgery again

Bengaluru, Jun 21: As many as 453 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Sunday including 196 in Bengaluru alone, taking the total number of infections in Karnataka to 9,150, the Health Department said.

Five more deaths took the toll due to COVID-19 in the state to 137, a bulletin issued by the department said.

An assistant sub-inspector posted in a traffic police station died due to coronavirus on Saturday night taking the number of policemen succumbing to the contagion to three, police said.

The entire police station has been sealed for sanitisation and 25 people including five primary contacts of the deceased have been quarantined at the designated hospitals.

The total number of COVID-19 cases include 5,618 discharges, 3,391 active cases, 137 deaths, four deaths due to non-COVID causes and 77 patients admitted in Intensive Care Units.

The 196 cases confirmed in Bengaluru today is the highest single-day spike ever since the outbreak of the pandemic.

With 64 deaths so far, the city's share in the total fatalities in the state due to COVID is 47 per cent.

The five deaths reported on Sunday included three in Bengaluru.

"Yes. It is a major single day spike in Bengaluru," a health department official told P T I.

Of the total cases reported in Bengaluru, 101 are Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) and 68 are those whose contact tracing is underway.

Apart from 196 in Bengaluru, 40 cases were reported in Ballari, 39 cases each in Kalaburagi and Vijayapura, 18 each in Mysuru and Gadag, 15 in Dharwad, 14 in Bagalkote, 13 in Bidar, eight each in Davangere, Uttara Kannada and Kolar.

The five deaths reported on Sunday consisted of four men and a woman.

In view of the rising cases in Bengaluru, the Chief Secretary on Saturday formed three teams.

According to an order, Principal Secretary in Cooperative department Tushar Girinath will head the team that will ensure shifting the patients from their houses or the institutional quarantine facilities to the designated hospital.

The second team headed by the Karnataka Public Service Commission secretary G Sathyavathi will monitor the containment zone and carry out extensive surveys of people with COVID-19.

The third team is headed by Karnataka State Mineral Development Corporation managing director Naveen Raj Singh and Additional Commissioner of police Hemant Nimbalkar who will ensure social distancing at public places.

These three teams will have senior bureaucrats and top police officers as members.

Hubli, Jun 12: An inspector of Hubli Rural police station on Friday was suspended for delaying the submission of a charge sheet in the matter relating to sedition charges against three Kashmiri students for making a video with pro-Pakistan slogan.

A second Joint Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court in February sent the three students, identified as Basit Ashik Sophi (19), Talib Majid (19) and Amir Mohiuddin (23), to police custody till February 28.

The Kashmiri students are under judicial custody since February 17 following their arrest for raising pro-Pakistan slogans and posting a video of the same on social media on the night of February 16.

Kalaburagi, Feb 22: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Waris Pathan was booked for his alleged remark against the Hindu community in his speech during an anti-CAA rally held here recently, police sources said on Saturday.

According to police sources, the FIR was registered against the AIMIM leader, following a complaint lodged by a woman advocate on Friday evening.

Taking strongly about the incident, the Karnataka Home minister Basavaraj Bommai had directed the Kalaburagi city police commissioner to submit a report on the incident.

It may be recalled that the AIMIM leader, in his speech at a rally held in the city on February 15 had said that if all the 15 crore minority populations in the country stand united they could take on 100 crore Hindu population.