Ullal Friday prayer controversy: Organisations to protest against Wakf Board's “haram” claim

Bengaluru, Jul 19: A viral video claiming to show crowded condition of a hospital treating COVID-19 patients in the city was found to be false with police on Sunday arresting a person for allegedly circulating it on social media.

Police said such videos have the potential to create panic and asked people to refrain from spreading them.

The arrest was made within hours of the police announcing registration of a case in connection with the video that showed a crowd of people wearing masks at an "outpatient ward" of a hospital, falsely identified as Victoria Hospital, a major dedicated COVID facility here.

The video went viral on social media.

"City Crime Branch swiftly identified and arrested this person who has been circulating false videos of panic in Victoria Hospital, Bangalore. Kudos to all doctors and medical professionals who are doing their best. False news busted," Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao tweeted.

Police said such videos have the potential to create panic in society and asked people to refrain from it.

"Covid False video about conditions of hospitals in Bangalore circulated on social media. Case registered in Cybercrime PS. While government, society at large fighting the pandemic, some are creating/forwarding messages/videos which has potential to create panic in society. Refrain from it," Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Sandeep Patil tweeted.

The video showed scores of people wearing masks gathered in a small space allegedly at an Out-Patient Department in a hospital, and a person filming it, claiming to be a doctor expressing concern that it was a threat to all medical staff, including the patients.

Official sources said the video was reportedly from a hospital in one of the northern states and not from Victoria Hospital.

Udupi, Mar 25: Fearing Corona infection a 56-year-old man has committed suicide over in Udupi. 

The deceased has been identified as Gopalkrishna Madivala.

He was a KSRTC bus driver and was currently performing a duty to train new drivers.

He suspected his friend had contracted COVID-19 and as he had a close association with him, he feared he too will be infected and hence hanged himself on a tree.

Although symptoms of Corona infection do not appear to him, he left behind a death note which stated that he resorted to the extreme step over suspicion of having been infected by a corona trait of a friend. 

Recently, the first COVID-19 positive case in Udupi where a 34-year-old man has been tested positive.

A press release issued by the District Health and Family Welfare Officer on Wednesday said that the man had come from Dubai to Udupi district on March 18.

Since he showed symptoms of COVID-19, he was admitted to the District Government Hospital on March 23. His throat swab was sent for test and the preliminary report stated that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

Mangaluru, June 29: Six more personnel from Ullal Police Station in Mangaluru taluk have tested positive for covid-19. 

With this, the total number of covid positive cops from the Ullal Police Station mounted to 10.

Official sources said that throat swabs of five police personnel and a Home Guard from Ullal today received positive report today. Earlier, four other cops were tested positive. 

In addition to the police personnel, two undertrials arrested by the Ullal police on the charges of murder attempt at Thokkottu Olapete too were tested positive for Covid-19 June 28.