Hindu Jagarana Vedike holds bandh against Chaithtra Kundapura in DK’s temple town

Bengaluru, Apr 16: The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday has identified eight districts from Karnataka as COVID-19 hotspots.

Districts that have reported a higher number of cases are classified as hotspots, the districts where cases have been reported as non-hotspots, and green zones where no cases have been reported.

Bangalore Urban, Mysuru, Belagavi, Dakshina Kannada, Bidar, Kalaburgi, Bagalokote and Dharwad have been identified as Covid-19 hotspots by Union Health Ministry, tweeted the state health department on Wednesday.

Bengaluru, Mar 10: Three more positive COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Karnataka taking the tally to four, state Health Minister B Sriramulu on Tuesday informed.

"Their family members have been isolated and their health is being monitored. I urge citizens to take precautionary measures and co-operate in preventing the spread of this infection," Sriramulu said.

As on Monday, the national tally of persons affected by the coronavirus is 45.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in the past 24 hours, one positive case from Kerala, two from Pune, and three from Bengaluru have been confirmed.

Apart from the ICMR; National Institute of Virology in Pune; 51 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories; and National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi are carrying out tests for COVID-19.

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.