It is 'women first' for govt and party, says PM Modi

Bengaluru, May 16: The Karnataka government is expected to take a call on Monday on holding the Secondary Level School Certificate (SSLC) or class 10 examination, which were postponed due to COVID-19 lockdown.

Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar said there was a possibility that the state government may come out with a timetable on Monday. "We are holding a meeting regarding the SSLC examination," he told reporters here.

He also said there would be discussions on how to conduct the exams and precautionary measures to be taken in view of COVID-19.

"We have to make arrangements for masks, sanitisers and thermal scanners. We will set up a thermal scanner for a health check-up. We have to make separate seating arrangements for those having health issues. All these issues will be discussed on Monday," Kumar said.

The SSLC exams were supposed to commence from May 27 but due to the lockdown, it was postponed for an indefinite period.

Bengaluru, Jul 13: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has initiated the process of recruiting 1,700 medical professionals, doctors, staff nurses and support staff to scale up its workforce to set up 30,000 COVID-19 care beds, an official said on Sunday.

According to the official, to establish and run 30,000 COVID care beds, 1,800 doctors and 3,600 nurses are required. A 10,100-bed facility was set up last week in the Bengaluru International Exhibition centre (BIEC) on Tumkur road.

The Health Department has calculated that one doctor per shift is needed for every 100 patients and one staff nurse for every 50 patients. Similarly, two supporting staff and three Group D employees are needed per shift for every 100 patients. Generally, a day is divided into three shifts of eight hours each.

According to the director of medical education, there are 25,000 nursing students who have completed GNM and BSc Nursing courses and are pursuing higher education.

Likewise, there are 3,231 medical, dental and Aayush interns, while MD and MS postgraduate students have been identified to be 1,613 in Bengaluru colleges.

"The department plans to actively utilise the services of interns and postgraduate students for the COVID Care Centre (CCC) operations," said the official.

Currently, there are 2,100 CCC beds operational under the civic body in Bengaluru with a pool of 503 doctors, 167 ayush doctors, 128 nursing and paramedical staff.

Earlier in May, the civic body also notified the recruitment of 380 microbiologists, technicians and data entry operators for six months. In June, the civic body again notified the recruitment of 637 doctors, nurses, technicians and group d employees to strengthen its fight against the pandemic.

Bengaluru has recently seen a spike in COVID-19 in Karnataka, accounting for 61% of all active cases in the state.

On Saturday, the city reported 1,533 new cases, taking its total tally to 16,862, of which 12,793 are active.

Karnataka recorded 2,798 more coronavirus cases and 70 more casualties on Saturday evening, raising the state's total cases to 36,216 and the death toll to 613.

Mangalore, Jan 15: In one of the biggest seizure of gold in the new decade, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths here have seized five kg of gold valued at Rs two Crore from the Air Cargo Complex at International Airport here recently.

Acting on a tip-off the officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Bangalore and Mangalore in a co-ordinated effort unraveled a unique modus of smuggling of gold through Air Cargo Complex, at old airport, Bajpe Mangalore two days back, According to release issued here on Tuesday evening.

The smuggled gold was concealed in five metal sprockets which were imported by M/s Swaroop Mineral Pvt Ltd of Udupi in the name of “mining conveyor drive chain”.