Udupi: Authorities prevent 17-year-old girl’s wedding

Mangaluru, May 15: Dakshina Kannada saw a record spike in the number of fresh COVID-19 cases today, which triggered panic among the people of the district, which is currently under orange zone.   

According to the mid-day bulletin of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 16 people from Dakshina Kannada tested positive for the covid-19. 

Among them 15 are the Gulf returnees who were brought by an Air India Express special flight from Dubai to Mangaluru International Airport on May 12. 

As many as 179 repatriates had landed at Mangaluru Airport. Among them 125 are quarantined in Dakshina Kannada, 49 in Udupi and five in Uttara Kannada districts.  

Meanwhile, a 68-year-old woman from Surathkal area in Mangaluru, who is suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) was also tested covid-19 positive.

This is the highest number of cases reported in a single day since first case registered in the district on March 22 when Dubai-bound youth from Bhatkal was tested positive. 

With this the total number of covid-19 cases in the district mounted to 50 including five deaths. Many of them have returned home after recovery.

3 members of a family test positive

According to Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh, three members of a same family are among 15 gulf returnees who are tested positive.  They are a 45-year-old man, his 33-year-old wife and their 6-year-old child. 

Six among those who tested positive today are above 60 years of age, said the deputy commissioner. 
 

Bengaluru, Jul 12: Karnataka on Sunday registered 71 COVID-19 deaths, its highest single day count, and 2,627 fresh cases, pushing the tally of infections in the state to 38,843, the health department said.

The total positive cases include 22,746 active cases and 15,409 discharges, the department said in its daily bulletin.

The total active cases include 532 people admitted in the ICUs across the state.

Of the 71 fatalities, a record 45 were reported in Bengaluru alone including the death of 16 day-old baby girl and 17-year-old girl with chronic kidney disease, taking the total mortalities in the city to 274.

Among the districts, where new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban accounted for 1,525 cases, followed by Dakshina Kannada with 196, Dharwad 129, Yadagiri 120, and 19 in Bengaluru Rural.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, 8.39 lakh samples have been tested including 20,050 on Sunday alone, of which 7.80 lakh tested negative.

Other than Bengaluru, five fatalities were reported in Dakshina Kannada, three each in Mysuru, Hassan, Davangere and Belagavi, two each in Haveri and Bagalkote and one each in Dharwad, Koppal, Tumakuru, Vijayapura and Chamarajanagar.

While majority of those who died of coronavirus suffered from Severe Acute Respiratory Illness and Influenza Like Illness, significantly 21 victims did not have any pre-medical conditions while eight were the asymptomatic patients with pre-medical conditions.

Bengaluru, Feb 18: A 26-year-old Kannada singer committed suicide over alleged dowry harassment on Monday. Sushmitha, a playback singer who got married to Sharath Kumar about one-and-a-half years ago, hung herself from the ceiling at her parent's home in Nagarabhavi, Bengaluru on Monday.

The singer sent a Whatsapp to her brother and mother before hanging herself early morning on Monday. She accused her husband and his relatives of dowry harassment in her death note.

According to Bengaluru Police, the singer has accused her husband, his sister and his aunt of harassing her for dowry in her death note. On Monday morning, Sushmitha's brother alerted the police after he found her dead body hanging from the ceiling. She used her dupatta to hang herself.

Sushmitha had lent her voice for Kannada songs in films like Haalu Thuppa and Srisamanya.

Police informed that Sushmitha sent a Whatsapp message to her brother, Sachin, at around 1 am on Sunday and explained that her husband Sharath and her relatives have been harassing her since the time she got married. Sachin read the message at around 5:30am and rushed to her room where he found her hanging from the ceiling.

In the text message, Sushmitha wrote that her husband, Sharath, his sister, Geetha, and his aunt, Vydehi, harassed her and they were the reason behind her ending her life. She also stated that she did not want to end her life in their house and hence came to her parents’ house.

The Annapoorneshwari Nagar police have registered a case of dowry death, charging her husband and his sister and aunt based on complaint filed by Sushmitha’s mother Meenakshi. The three accused are on run after hearing about her death and police said that efforts are on to trace them.

Sushmitha's husband Sharath Kumar is a manager in a car showroom and a resident of KS Nagar in Bengaluru.