Hindustan a country of Hindus but it doesn't exclude others: RSS chief

Jun 13: Requiring the wearing of masks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in areas at the epicenter of the global pandemic may have prevented tens of thousands of infections, a new study suggests.

Mask-wearing is even more important for preventing the virus' spread and the sometimes deadly COVID-19 illness it causes than social distancing and stay-at-home orders, researchers said, in the study published in PNAS: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

Infection trends shifted dramatically when mask-wearing rules were implemented on April 6 in northern Italy and April 17 in New York City - at the time among the hardest hit areas of the world by the health crisis - the study found.

"This protective measure alone significantly reduced the number of infections, that is, by over 78,000 in Italy from April 6 to May 9 and over 66,000 in New York City from April 17 to May 9," researchers calculated.

When mask-wearing went into effect in New York, the daily new infection rate fell by about 3% per day, researchers said. In the rest of the country, daily new infections continued to increase.

Direct contact precautions - social distancing, quarantine and isolation, and hand sanitizing - were all in place before mask-wearing rules went into effect in Italy and New York City. But they only help minimize virus transmission by direct contact, while face covering helps prevent airborne transmission, the researchers say.

"The unique function of face covering to block atomization and inhalation of virus-bearing aerosols accounts for the significantly reduced infections," they said. That would indicate "that airborne transmission of COVID-19 represents the dominant route for infection."

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday urged organizers of large gatherings that involve "shouting, chanting or singing to strongly encourage the use of cloth face coverings to lower the risk of spreading the coronavirus."

Mangaluru/Udupi, May 28: Coastal Karnataka witnessed further spike in covid-19 cases today with 27 people testing positive for coronavirus in Udupi and six in Dakshina Kannada. 

Among 27 coronavirus patients in Udupi 18 are males and 9 females. Among them 24 have come from Maharashtra, two from Telangana and one from Kerala. All of them were under quarantine.

As many as 147 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported so far in the district, including a death. Three have recovered, and 143 are active.

In Dakshina Kannada, 2 females aged 18 and 62, and four males aged 25, 36, 50 and 61, are the ones to be tested positive. All the six persons to test positive are Maharashtra returnees.

With this, the number of cases in DK has increased to 87, out of which 51 are currently active. As many as 29 persons have recovered and been discharged, and seven deaths have occurred so far.

Bengaluru, Jul 20: Karnataka on Monday reported 3,648 COVID-19 cases taking the tally to 67,420, informed the state health department.

According to a bulletin issued by the department, the state recorded 72 more deaths due to COVID-19 with the toll at 1,403 while six patients who tested positive for the infection have died due to non-COVID causes, as of Monday.

There are 42,216 active cases in the state.
As many as 730 patients were discharged today, taking the total discharged patients to 23,795.
Bengaluru recorded the highest number of cases and deaths today at 1,452 and 31, respectively, informed the state health department.

India's COVID-19 case tally crossed the 11-lakh mark with the highest single-day spike of 40,425 new cases and 681 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, said the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Monday.

The total cases in the country now stand at 1,118,043 while the death toll is 27,497.

The ministry said the total number of cases include 390,459 active cases and 700,087 cured/discharged/migrated.