Sangh Parivar’s opposition to Kerala CM’s Mangaluru visit hurts Billavas

Bengaluru, Mar 25 : Karnataka recorded its highest single-day tally to date, as 10 people tested positive, taking the total number of cases to 51 in the state.

“Till date 51 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state which includes one death and three discharged," the health department said in a statement on Wednesday.

The rise in cases adding to the growing national tally of people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The daughter of a former union minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Karnataka has also tested positive.

Bengaluru accounts for 32 of the total 51 cases recorded in the state so far,including three who have fully recovered and released.

Dakshina Kannada has five confirmed cases, Chikkaballapura and Kalaburagi has three cases each, Mysuru has and Uttara Kannada has two cases each and four other districts have one case each.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a 21-day lockdown of the country to keep people indoors and contain the spread of the virus in the community.

The government has also been trying to scale up testing.

Medical education minister K.Sudhakar on Wednesday told Mint that Karnataka will scale up testing by 10-fold with the help of government and private labs approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

A total of 2,438 people have been tested in Karnataka and 2242 have tested negative, according to state health department. 214 people are lodged in medical hospitals.

Bengaluru, Jan 24: Middle East based prestigious LuLu Group has come forward to invest $300 million in Karnataka in the retail, logistics and hospitality sectors.

As part of this, the first LuLu mall will commence operations in Bengaluru’s Rajajinagar area by August.

LuLu’s first mall in India, in Cochin, is seen as a huge success. It’s not clear how that mall is doing financially, but it became so popular that it had an adverse effect on almost every other mall in the city.

Lulu’s investment plan for Karnataka was communicated during a discussion between chief minister BS Yediyurappa and Yusuff Ali MA, chairman and managing director of Lulu Group, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The company will also set up two five-star hotels in Bengaluru through Twenty14 Holdings, its hospitality arm, and a modern logistics centre in the Uttara Kannada region.

Lulu Group’s retail initiative Tablez brought Toys `R’ Us, one of the world’s largest toy store chains, to Bengaluru in 2017. Started in the Phoenix Mall in Whitefield, it competes with Reliance-owned Hamleys.

Tablez has also brought in other international brands such as American ice cream parlour chain Cold Stone Creamery, South Africa based flame-grilled chicken concept Galito’s, and Tablez’ own brand Bloomsbury’s, a boutique cafe and bakery. It has also launched Spanish fashion brands Springfield and Women ’secret.

Bengaluru, May 29: A cost-effective state of the art glove box testing booth for swab collection was inaugurated by Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar at Victoria hospital.

Inaugurating the specially designed booth for safer, easier and quicker testing, Medical Education Minister Dr Sudhakar said that the portable booths can be used at border check posts and hot spots.

"The testing method involves the collection of samples from inside a box of aluminium and glass. The suspected corona virus-infected individual, whose samples are being taken, has to walk up to the booth and stand in front of the glass exterior. The healthcare worker inside the kiosk collects the sample and then, follows the sanitisation process before proceeding to take the next sample. The collection process, fully contactless, gets over in five minutes," the Minister said.

Dr Sudhakar also said: "This booth significantly reduces manpower requirement and the need for PPE kits. The main advantages of this procedure are that it needs fewer healthcare workers and strictly adheres to the norms of social distancing. 

The booth is low-cost. Each model costs about Rs 15,000-20,000."
It is also portable and can be mounted on a vehicle and transported to any location.

It can be particularly useful for collecting samples in hot spots and border checkpoints, he added.