‘Secular alliance a must to defeat fascism in India’

Mangaluru, Jun 17: A private flight chartered by UAE-based NRI hotelier Praveen Shetty has brought home around 175 people from United Arab Emirates.

This is the third flight chartered by Mr Shetty, chairman of the Fortune Group of Hotels, and president of the Karnataka Non-Resident Indian Forum, to repatriate his employees and other stranded Kannadigas.

The Air Arabia flight with 168 adult passengers and six infants on board took off from Sharjah International Airport at 9:45 pm (UAE time) on June 16 and landed at Mangaluru International Airport at 2:50 am Indian Standard Time on June 17.

Newsroom, Apr 22: Dozens of Tablighi Jamaat members from across the country who have been successfully recovered and have now tested negative for the novel coronavirus have come forward and donate their plasma for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

The Tablighis from Tamil Nadu were the first to take this decision. According to them, apart from helping the critically ill patients to recover from COVID-19, was to counter the ‘baseless accusations’ that Tablighis were responsible for the spread of the virus following the religious congregation of the sect held at Delhi’s Nizamuddin area last month.

Mohammad Abbas, a thirty-eight year old businessman from Tiruppur was on Sunday discharged from Coimbatore’s ESI hospital. “As soon as I got discharged, I met the district administration officials and the dean of the hospital and told them that they may contact me anytime if they needed me to donate my plasma,” Abbas was quoted as saying by an English daily.

“It has only been one day since I was discharged but I’ve already spoken to others (from the Jamaat) who have recovered and they were all ready to donate,” he added. 

Leader's call

Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, a prominent leader of Tablighi Jamaat, who has been booked by the Delhi Police for holding a religious congregation, too has appealed to coronavirus survivors to donate blood plasma for infected people.

In a letter issued on Tuesday, Saad said most of the members who were quarantined did not have any infection and they tested negative for COVID-19.

"Even from amongst the ones who tested positive for the disease, a majority of them have now undergone treatment and are now cured while I and a few others are still under quarantine.

"It is required that such people who are now cured of this disease should donate blood plasma to others who are still fighting the disease and are under treatment," he said.

He also has urged the followers of the organisation to pray at home in the month of Ramadan instead of going to mosques. 

Plasma therapy

Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients.

In this therapy, the antibodies of a person who has recovered from the virus are taken and transfused into a sick person (having the virus) to help boost the person’s immune system.

The recovered COVID-19 patient’s blood develops antibodies to battle against COVID-19.

Once the blood of the first patient is infused to the second patient, those antibodies will start fighting against the coronavirus in the second person.

The process for donating plasma is similar to donating blood and takes about an hour.

Several countries around the world including the United Kingdom and the United States have also started plasma therapy trials.

In India, several states like Kerala, Gujarat and Punjab have already started using Plasma Therapy for the corona-infected patients.

Bengaluru, Jun 12: Karnataka on Friday reported 464 discharges, its highest, as the state confirmed 271 new cases of COVID-19 and seven related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 6,516 and the death toll to 79.

In a significant development, the day also saw the total number of discharges overtaking the number of active cases in the state.

As of June 12 evening, cumulatively 6,516 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 79 deaths and 3,440 discharges, the Health department said in its bulletin.

It said, out of 2,995 active cases, 2,976 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 19 are in ICU.

The seven deaths include four from Bengaluru, two from Kalaburagi and one from Hassan.

Those from Bengaluru are three women aged 61, 65 and 49 and a 52-year old man.

Among the dead from Kalaburagi are two men aged 53 and 48 while a 60-year old man from Hassan also succumbed to the virus.

Out of 271 new cases, 92 are returnees from other states, majority of them from neighbouring Maharashtra.

While 14 are those who returned from other countries.

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Ballari accounted for 97 cases, followed by Bengaluru urban 36, Udupi 22, Kalaburagi 20, Dharwad 19, Dakshina Kannada 17, Bidar 10, nine each from Hassan and Mysuru, Tumakuru 7, Shivamogga 6, four each from Raichur and Uttara Kannada, three each from Chitradurga and Ramanagara, Mandya 2, and one each from Belagavi, Vijayapura and Kolar.

Udupi district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 991 infections, followed by Kalaburagi (816) and Yadgir (735).

Among discharges also Udupi tops the list with a total of 474, followed by Kalaburagi (345) and Bengaluru urban (299).

A total of 4,26,341 samples have been tested so far, with 9,835 on Friday alone.

So far 4,11,244 samples have been reported as negative, and out of them 9,139 were reported negative today.