Baraguru Ramachandrappa to inaugurate Alva's 'Nudisiri'

Bengaluru, Mar 4: With the number of Coronavirus positive cases in India increasing, health department officials in Karnataka are working round the clock to keep citizens safe.

But citizens are already panicking with 97 people in Bengaluru rushing to the government-run Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Chest Diseases (RGICD) on Tuesday with symptoms matching the coronavirus.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has now appealed for calm saying there is no coronavirus in the state.

"There is a difference in what appears in the media and what is on the ground. No need to panic. PM Modi is also looking into this. My health minister addressed the media and no one needs to panic. We are ready to tackle the situation," he added.

Dr. Nagaraj, director of RGICD, said the screening process began at the hospital on January 22 and they would see some 15-20 patients and take 5-6 swabs.

"Because of apprehensions, we saw 978 patients and took 27 swabs. We have also admitted 4 patients in the isolation ward," he added.

As of today, there are 5 patients admitted in the isolation ward of RGICD. Two came in close contact with the infected techie in Telengana and three foreign nationals from Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

Tech parks on high alert

At the Manyata Tech Park in the city, a company sent out a circular regarding one of their associates who had travelled from a Level 3 country to India and had flu-like symptoms.

It says that the associate was advised to receive necessary screening and observation as mandated by the Karnataka State Health Department. The associate was screened by an authorized medical agency and determined to be asymptomatic.

As of Wednesday, the company located in the G3 campus of Manyata Tech Park has begun disinfecting and sanitizing the work location and all associates working out of this location have been advised to work from home until March 6.

A statement issued by Embassy spokesperson on March 4 to India Today TV indicated the authorities have activated their response plan.

"As of March 4, we are not aware of a single positive case for the virus in more than 2,00,000 people who work in our business parks. We do understand that one employee of a company at one of our parks who had travelled from a Level 3 country was screened in the last 36 hours and determined to be asymptomatic.

As a precaution, the premises are being disinfected and sanitized. The fact remains, we are not aware of a single confirmed case within over 15 business parks across India," the statement said.

Bengaluru, Feb 12: Mohammed Nalapad, the rogue son of Karnataka Congress leader NA Harris, who is out on bail in a 2018 case of him bashing up a man at a pub, has now rammed his luxury car into vehicles, injuring four people on Bengaluru road.

The incident took place on Sunday on the Ballari Road where Nalapad was rash driving his car. The car hit a biker and an autorickshaw, injuring four people. He immediately got off his car and fled riding a friend's car.

The biker has suffered a fracture in his leg and is undergoing treatment at a hospital.

According to police, soon after the accident a man appeared before police to claim responsibility for the accident.

Ravikante Gowde, Joint Commissioner of Police said, "A man named Balakrishna came to surrender as the one who was driving the car. Investigation has, however, showed that it was Nalapad who was driving when he met with the accident. The investigating officer has issued him a notice to appear before the police."

BJP spokesperson S Prakash has said, "A case under the Goonda Act should be filed against Nalapad and the court should take cognisance of this and cancel his bail. The father has no control over son. He is a serial offender who is harming the public on a repeated basis."

Nalapad was earlier arrested in 2018 in the Bengaluru pub incident in which he and his associate bashed up the son of a prominent businessman in the city. Nalapad Harris is out on bail after remaining in judicial custody for three months in the case of attempt to murder after the 2018 midnight brawl.