Hindu group celebrates Trump birthday with cake in New Delhi

Hubballi, Mar 31: In a bid to increase the country's capacity for isolation facilities, the Railways is converting sleeper class coaches into isolation wards by modifying the coaches as per prototype issued by Railway Board to make them suitable to act as quarantine hubs. On South Western Railway (SWR) a total of 312 coaches will be converted for isolation/quarantine wards.

"The coaches will be equipped with basic facilities needed as per medical guidelines. Provision is being made for charging points of mobiles and laptops. Mosquito nets with space for paramedics etc are also being made available. Each coach will provide 8 berth cabin for isolation facility.

Zonal Railways have been advised to prepare coaches as per isolation cabin prototype to meet the needs of the patients by Railway Board," a press statement of SWR reads.

The efforts of Indian Railways have been aimed not only to supplement the present health infrastructure of the nation but also to contribute to national efforts to fight the coronavirus.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of coronavirus cases in the country stand at 1,251.

Bengaluru, May 22: Karnataka Congress delegation met Chief Election Commissioner, Dr B Basavaraju in Bengaluru, urging him to guide Karnataka Government to conduct local body elections and not to allow State government to nominate their party men to the local bodies.

The delegation was led by Congress leader Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar.

"They (State government) wants to postpone the election, they have a lot of other provisions. We are demanding to protect the law, the government doesn't have the power to interfere in the system. We will not allow the state government to nominate their party men.

The CM and his entire team is responsible for this, they are killing the democracy and Panchayati Raj system of the State," said Shivakumar while speaking to the reporters.

The local body elections were scheduled to take place in the month of March or April, which were postponed in view of the COVID-19 crisis.

However, the date for conducting the local body elections has not been decided yet.

Bengaluru, Mar 5: The Karnataka government has advised city-based companies to allow their employees to work from home if they have flu-like symptoms.

"Those employees having flu like symptoms may be allowed to work from home with advice of standard hand hygiene and cough etiquette," the Health Department said in its advisory.

The advisory asked people to avoid non-essential travel to COVID-19 affected countries and refrain from travel to China, Iran, Republic of Korea, Italy and Japan.

"Employees other than those restricted countries arriving directly or indirectly from China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, Italy, Hong Kong, Maccau, Veitnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, the UAE and Qatar must undergo medical screening at airport entry," the advisory read.

The government advisory also mandated employees arriving through all international flights entering lndia from any port to furnish duly filled self-declaration form, including personal particulars - phone numbers and address in India, and travel history to health officials and immigration officials.

It also appealed to promote regular and thorough hand washing at work places and keeping sanitising hand rub dispensers (alcohol-based) in prominent places and provide access to places where staff can wash their hands with soap and water.

Companies have been asked to promote good respiratory hygiene and ensure the availability of surgical masks and paper tissues at workplaces only for those who develop a running nose or cough at work along with closed bins for their hygienic disposal.

Meanwhile, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Commissioner B H Anil Kumar chaired a meeting on Wednesday regarding the preparedness to deal with coronavirus.