Mangaluru, May 2: Fishermen in the coastal districts fear that the fishing season ending on May 31 every year might be rescheduled early this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement department of fisheries on sturday said fishing season is closed for 61 days every year before the arrival of the monsoon.
As per the data with the Fisheries Department, this year the number of fishes caught has set a record.
Istanbul: Mosques in Turkey reopened on Friday for mass prayers after more than two months as the government further eased strict restrictions to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
Turkey has been shifting since May to a "new normal" by easing lockdown measures and opening shopping malls, barbershops and hair salons.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said many other sites -- restaurants and cafes as well as libraries, parks and beaches -- will reopen from Monday.
Hundreds of worshippers wearing protective masks performed mass prayers outside Istanbul's historic Blue Mosque for the first time since mosques were shut down in March.
In the Ottoman-era Fatih mosque, worshippers prayed both inside and outside, with the municipality handing out disinfectants and disposable carpets.
"I have waited a lot for this, I have prayed a lot. I can say it's like a new birth, thanks to God, he has brought us back here," he said.
Another worshipper, Asum Tekif, 50, said: "It has a been a long time... we missed the mosques."
Turkey, a country of 83 million, has so far recorded 4,489 coronavirus-related deaths and 162,120 confirmed cases.
Prayers in Hagia Sophia
Muslim clerics on Friday recited prayers in the Hagia Sophia, the world famous Istanbul landmark which is now a museum after serving as a church and a mosque.
The prayers were held to celebrate the anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople, today's Istanbul, by the Ottomans in 1453.
"It is very important to commemorate the 567th anniversary of the conquest ... through prayers in the Hagia Sophia," said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who attended the ceremony via videoconference.
The stunning edifice was first built as a church in the sixth century under the Byzantine Empire as the centrepiece of its capital Constantinople.
After the Ottoman conquest, it was converted into a mosque before being turned into a museum during the rule of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, in the 1930s.
But there have been hints about reconverting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Last year, Erdogan himself mooted the possibility of turning Hagia Sofia museum into a mosque.
Such calls have sparked anger among Christians and raised tensions with neighbouring Greece.
In 2015, a Muslim cleric recited the Koran in the Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years to mark the opening of an exhibition.
After Friday prayers at the Blue Mosque, a small group of Muslim worshippers shouted: "Let the chains break and let the Hagia Sophia open".
The group was later dispersed by the police who stopped them from protesting near Hagia Sophia that sits immediately opposite the Blue Mosque.
Chennai, Aug 5: Karnataka on Wednesday crossed the 1.5 lakh mark in respect of COVID-19 cases and Kerala was on the verge of 30,000 while Andhra Pradesh witnessed a five- digit daily caseload after a lull.
Tamil Nadu saw a small jump in its daily cases as compared to Tuesday while Telangana and union territory Puducherry reported their respective record single-day spikes.
The five states and the union territory reported a combined 24,415 fresh confirmed coronavirus cases and 316 fatalities on Wednesday.
A Puducherry Minister tested positive for the deadly virus while an opposition AINRC legislator who contracted the coronavirus earlier was discharged after being cured of it.
In Karnataka, the coronavirus cases stood at 1,51,449 with the addition of 5,619 fresh cases while 100 deaths were reported, pushing the total fatalities to 2,804, the health department said.
According to a health bulletin, 74,679 persons have been discharged so far, leaving 73,958 active cases. Andhra Pradesh''s COVID-19 surge continued on Wednesday too, with 10,128 cases reported afresh after easing a little in the last four days.
The overall tally rose to 1,86,461 on Wednesday. The state had last reported its five-figure daily tally on July 31 when it was 10,376.
The state also saw a record number of 77 coronavirus deaths in a day, pushing the toll to 1,681, the latest bulletin said.
In the last 24 hours, 8,729 patients had also recovered from the infection and there were 80,426 active cases.
As many as 1,04,354 patients have been cured and discharged so far. Kerala was on the verge of 30,000 cases, as its tally stood at 29,145 with the addition of 1,195 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
The toll from the virus so far climbed to 94 with seven more deaths. Thiruvananthapuram continued to top the districts in infections with 274 cases on Wednesday, of whom 248 had been infected through contact.
Malappuram (167), Kasaragod (128), Ernakulam (120) and Alappuzha (108) reported over 100 cases. As many as 112 patients died of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, the highest reported in a single day so far, taking the toll to 4,461 on Wednesday while 5,175 more people tested positive, propelling the case count to 2.73 lakh.
Recoveries outnumbered fresh cases with 6,031 people getting discharged from various hospitals, taking the total cured to 2,14,815 as the active cases dropped to 54,184, a government bulletin said.
In Telangana, 2,012 new cases emerged while 13 related fatalities were reported, taking the total infection tally in the state to 70,958. Out of the new cases, 532 were from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), followed by Medchal-Malkajgiri 198 and Rangareddy 188, a state government bulletin said on Wednesday, providing data as of 8 PM on August 4.
The total number of people who recovered from the infectious disease touched 50,814, while 19,568 were under treatment.
The COVID-19 fatality rate in the state was 0.81 per cent, while it was 2.10 per cent at the national level, it said. The recovery rate was 71.6 per cent in the state, while it was 66.31 per cent in the country, it added.
Puducherry clocked its worst single-day spike of 286 infections, recording seven deaths, even as the overall tally of cases went up to 4,432.
The deaths during the 24 hours in the Union Territory took the toll to 65 so far since the outbreak of the virus, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao told a virtual press conference.
His cabinet colleague M Kandasamy and his son reported positive for the virus and were admitted to JIPMER.
Shivamogga, May 21: A quarantine facility at Bapuji Nagar in Shivamogga on Wednesday evening was vandalised, by a group of people. leading to chaos.
The police had to resort to baton-charge to control the situation.
Locals were opposing the facility, which is being used to isolate travellers from different states in the view of coronavirus.
Deputy Commissioner KB Sivakumar said that the police department will investigate and book a case against the protesters.
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