No trace of missing Malpe fishermen even after 28 days

Bengaluru, Jun 24: Three weeks after the BMTC resumed running air-conditioned buses in the state capital, the state-owned Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has announced plying AC buses to eight cities to begin with, including to Mangaluru and Mysuru, from Thursday.

From tomorrow travellers can travel to Mysuru, Mangaluru, Kundapura, Madikeri, Chikkamagaluru, Davanagere, Shivamogga and Virajpet in AC buses, KSRTC said in a statement released here.

Listing out the measures taken to check the spread of Covid-19, the Corporation said that the temperature inside the buses will be maintained at 24 to 25 degrees Celsius and no blankets will be provided in the night service buses.

Mangaluru, Jul 2: A BJP MLA in Dakshina Kannada has tested positive for covid-19.

Dr Bharat Shetty, who represents Mangaluru North Assembly constituency, took to Twitter to confirm the news.

“I have been tested covid-19 positive. With all your blessings, I'm recovering and will be under treatment for few days,” he tweeted. 

He also requested the people to maintain social distancing, wear masks while going out and wash hands frequently.

I have been tested COVID19 positive.
With all your blessings, I'm recovering & will be under treatment for few days.

Requesting everyone to please maintain social distancing, wear mask while going out and wash hands frequently.
Please take care of yourselves & your near one's.

— Dr Bharath Shetty (@bharathshetty_y) July 2, 2020

Karnataka on Saturday reported 12 new cases, the highest in a single day so far, taking the tally in the state to 76.

Late at night, the Mysuru district commissioner said five more people had tested positive in the district. But it was yet to be confirmed by the state health department.

Of the cases, 41 are from Bengaluru, eight from Chikkaballapur, while Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada districts have seven each.

Interestingly, the highest number of patients are those from Dubai or those who had transit travel via Dubai. Out of 76 cases, 17 cases (22%) have travel history to Dubai, the capital of Emirate of Dubai and the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, who is also in-charge of COVID-19 operations, said that Dubai has been a major concern as far as Karnataka COVID-19 patients are concerned. “Most of the positive cases have come through Dubai suggesting something amiss there,” he said. 

Echoing the same, Dr Prakash Kumar, Joint Director, Communicable Diseases, Department of Health and Family Welfare, said, “The layover in Dubai is around six to seven hours. We are seeing Dubai to be the new epicentre of the virus as far as India is concerned.”

UAE was initially not on the list of countries from where passengers were screened. It was added much later when clusters of patients with travel history to Dubai began popping up all over the country.

Patient-19 has infected the maximum so far.

Out of the 12 cases that tested positive on Saturday, five are contacts of Patient 19. All of them are being treated at a Chikkaballapur hospital. Two of them are from Hindupur, Andhra Pradesh, and three are residents of Gauribidanur taluk in Chikkabalapur district.

P19, a 31-year-old man from Chikkaballapur, had travelled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and returned to India on March 14. Existing patient clusters suggest that P19 had infected the maximum number of people. Officials did not reveal how many people he originally travelled with to Mecca.

Amid the rise in cases, Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary (Health), maintained that the state had not reached stage 3. But he had no definitive answer as to how the Mysuru patient contracted the virus despite health officials he was in touch with not testing positive.

Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said around 1,000 primary contacts of all positive cases have been classified as high-risk and low-risk. The high-risk patients are in government hospitals while the low-risk ones in quarantine facilities.