Karnataka unsafe in Congress hands, says Smriti Irani

Bengaluru, Mar 10: With concerns growing by the day, the Karnataka government is readying three more labs to test throat swab samples.

Currently, only two labs in Bengaluru — National Institute of Virology and Virus Research and Diagnostics Laboratory (VRDL) lab attached to Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute — are categorised biosafety level 2+, a requirement for coronavirus tests.

Now, the government is working on upgrading three more labs, one each in the government medical colleges at Hassan, Mysuru and Shivamogga. “The labs will be ready within one week,” the authorities said.

Currently, the labs are testing only throat swab samples of suspected patients and taking 24 hours to give the results. “A patient’s blood sample will be collected only if he or she tests positive for covid-19 infection in the first throat swab sample.

While earlier the state would send all samples of suspected coronavirus cases to NIV, Pune, the two labs were upgraded to biosafety level 2+ in mid-February.

Bengaluru, Jul 8: In a setback to the State government, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday stayed the initial ban and the subsequent restrictions imposed on schools against conducting online classes from pre-primary to Class X.

Prima facie the ban and embargo imposed on online education violate Articles 21 and 21A of the Constitutionon the fundamental right to education, the Court said.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Nataraj Rangaswamy passed the interim order staying the operation of Government Orders issued on June 15 and June 27 respectively.

The Bench passed the interim order on the petitions filed by parents of children and several educational institutions questioning the legality of the ban and the restrictions imposed.

However, the Bench made it clear that this order should not be construed that the schools have right to make online education compulsory and can charge fee for offering online education. Also, the schools should not deprive students, who cannot opt for online education, the lost education when the schools reopen on regular basis.

Mangaluru, Mar 22: A 22-year-old man from Bhatkal who had returned from Dubai on March 19 has tested positive for coronavirus.

Sindhu B Rupesh, Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada confrimed this today.

The youth, after landing at Mangaluru International Airport had got admitted to Govt Wenlock Hospital.

The total number of coronavirus positive patients in India rose to 342 on Sunday, as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

A total of 16,999 samples from 16,109 individuals have been tested for COVID-19 as of 10:00 am on March 22, as per ICMR data.

India reported two deaths today from the highly contagious virus - one each in Maharashtra and Bihar - taking the tally to six, as per state authorities.