I-T raids premises of Cafe Coffee Day owner V G Siddhartha

Bengaluru, Jun 17: Amid rising COVID cases in the past two weeks, the Karnataka government is planning to increase testing capacity to 25,000 samples a day, said a minister.

"Due to increase in cases in the last two weeks, the government is trying to scale up testing to 15,000 to 25,000 samples per day," said Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar.

He said people living in crowded places, sanitation workers, street vendors, healthcare workers, police and other frontline staff would be extensively tested.

"It has also been decided to mandatorily test all those who have symptoms of Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI)," he said.

Similarly, all people over 50 with ILI symptoms will be tested.

The health department will also randomly test samples in old containment zones to make sure that the infection is not recurring.

Currently, there are 72 Covid testing labs in the southern state, 41 government operated and 31 private labs.

However, for a few days, the number of Covid tests in the state have plummeted.

On Monday, the health department has tested only 5,362 samples across the state.

Likewise, on Tuesday, only 7,936 samples were tested, diverging from earlier weeks when around 10,000 cases were tested on an average.

In all, 4.57 lakh samples have been tested so far, of which 4.39 lakh have tested negative.

Bengaluru, Jan 8: The all-India shutdown by trade unions and other organisations began with little impact in the tech city as normal life continued on a working day, an official said.

"No effect of shutdown in the city though banking operations are affected as bank staff are supporting the trade unions," a state official said here.

However, thousands of workers participated in other parts of Karnataka in the nation-wide shutdown call given by trade unions, protesting central government's anti-labour laws and privatisation policies.

Protesters were seen carrying the red trade union flags at several places such as Hassan, Chamarajanagar, Tumakuru, Mysuru, Bengaluru and others.

Massive protests were seen in Peenya, and Neelmangla areas of Bengaluru.

In Madikeri, stones were pelted at a bus and some protesters were detained in Kolar.

The trade unions are against the privatisation of railways and corporatisation of 49 defence production units.

Merging 44 labour laws into four code is also one of the demands of the protesting trade unions.

The protesters are demanding raising the minimum wage in the range of ₹21,000 - 24,000 per month.

The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Indian National Trade Union Congress and Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) have given an all-India shutdown (Bharat Bandh) call on Wednesday.

Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa instructed the intelligence chief and additional director general of police Kamal Pant to maintain law and order in view of the Bharat bandh when he apprised him of the situation.

Police tightened security across the city by deploying 11 deputy commissioners of police (DCPs), 23 assistant commissioners of police (ACP), 111 inspectors, 316 sub-inspectors, 476 assistant sub-inspectors, 4,547 constables along with 82 platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP).

In Bengaluru city, Metro services were not affected by the nationwide strike. In view of the shutdown, security was beefed at the Metro stations.

Bengaluru, Jul 13: Former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday said that the state government should provide vitamin C drug, Ayush Ministry-certified immunity boosters and sanitisers to every household in the wake of the coronavirus spread.

"Karnataka government should provide vitamin C drug, Ayush Ministry-certified immunity boosters and sanitisers to every household to fight against COVID-19," Kumaraswamy told media.

The JDS leader further stated that "appropriate medication should be provided to those who are "symptomatic" by the Karnataka government and added that "by taking such measures the government can halt the spread of the virus."

If the government is not able to provide the health kit to everyone then at least they should give it to the BPL families, he added.

Kumaraswamy also stressed upon organising awareness campaigns about the coronavirus and use of supplements among the masses to prevent themselves from contracting the infection.

According to the Union Health Ministry, Karnataka has recorded 38,843 cases of COVID-19 to date.