Mangaluru gets more rain than last year so far, but less than average

Mangaluru, Jul 8: A corporator and a staff in Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) have tested positive for the coronavirus. 

The woman corporator, who was under home quarantine for past few days ago, received her covid test report today. 

A staff of health department who works in MCC also tested positive for the covid-19. 

The woman corporator had recently attended a primary health centre meeting. A person who had attended the meeting was later tested positive. Hence the corporator was placed under home quarantine.

Kuwait: The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the whole world into a difficult situation and the situation of Indians in Kuwait is not any different. Many people have lost their jobs, have no salary, are deprived of food and are not able to pay rent. The appalling conditions of labourers, domestic workers, taxi drivers and low waged earners don’t seem to end in Kuwait. 

At this trying situation when many people were even afraid of leaving their houses because of coronavirus, Suresh S. Rao Neramballi, volunteer of the Food Kit Distribution at the ICSG (Indian Community Support Group) has helped many tremendously. He was ready to go around delivering food kits at any time possible by his car. However, after Kuwait imposed a full curfew from 11th May 2020, no one could take out their vehicles unless they had a curfew pass. 

This did not stop Mr. Suresh Neramballi, who then borrowed a bicycle from a friend and ended up going around in the cycle delivering the food kits in curfew break time (4:30pm to 6:30pm) to all those who registered in the ICSG website. This selfless service surely commands appreciation and applause. Mr. Suresh Neramballi has been a light for many families and bachelors in Kuwait and will surely garner the blessings of them who have been able to eat at this time.

He was also the one who could deliver the food kits to many Indian Muslim maids, bachelors, laborers and families previous day and right on the day of EID, as they were not able to go shopping for their groceries for EID, due to the curfew. They blessed him in EID dua. 

Mr. Suresh Neramballi hails from Mangaluru, India and is an Engineer in the Oil sector company in Kuwait. He has been dedicated to social service, achieved 'Aryabhata International Award' for his Kannada Service and Social service, served in many Associations and Distributor of Kannada and Tulu Movies in Kuwait. He wholeheartedly thanks the people and government of Kuwait for his bread and butter.

Bengaluru, Jul 22: Karnataka's Covid-19 task force on Tuesday decided that the state government will regulate the supply of Remdesivir, the drug used in the treatment of coronavirus infected patients, to private hospitals to check black marketing and hoarding.

"Remdesivir which is currently available in the government hospitals will be supplied to private hospitals through the government.

This will help curb black marketing of this drug," Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar's office said in a release.

Along with Sudhakar, other task force members, including Health Minister Sriramulu, Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan and Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar attended the meeting. However, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai was not part of it as he was out of Bengaluru.

At the meeting, the government has also fixed the rate for Covid-19 tests in private labs- Rs 2,000 for government referred cases and 3,000 for self-reporting cases.

It was also decided to purchase 4 lakh antigen test kits and 5 lakh swab test kits to ramp up testing, the release said, adding that approvals have also been given for additional drugs for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

The decisions also included increasing monthly salary for Ayush doctors to 48,000, MBBS doctors to 80,000 and nurses to get 30,000 for next 6 months.

The task force also made it clear that private hospitals have to reserve 50 percent beds for the government for Covid-19 treatment. The remaining 50 percent can be used by the private hospitals for Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 treatment.

Private hospitals provide treatment under Ayushman Bharat scheme (ABARK) for Covid-19 patients.

Those cases in which treatment does not cover under the scheme can be charged as per the user charges, the release said.

A committee will be formed to supervise and recommend the purchase of equipment and medicines for Covid-19 treatment, which will be headed by ACS, ITBT Department.

Approval has been given for the procurement of N-95 masks and lakh PPE kits for the safety of healthcare workers. The decision also has been taken to connect oxygen pipeline to 4,736 beds in 17 government medical colleges, which will enable high flow oxygen for these beds besides being beneficial for future use as well.

According to the release, 16 RTPCR and 15 Automated RNA extraction units will be established to ramp up testing and this will help achieve the target of 50,000 tests per day. "On the whole approvals given for purchase of equipment and upgradation of existing facilities at government hospitals is estimated to be about Rs 500 Crore," it added.