Udupi: Mother drowns in lake; her two daughters too die in rescue bid

Bengaluru, Mar 23: The Karnataka government on Monday decided to purchase 1,000 ventilators from medical devices company Skanray Technologies and five lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), amid rising COVID-19 cases.

Health Minister B Sriramulu convened a meeting with officials to review the situation in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, and with the Mysuru-based firm through a video conference.

"In the meeting, it was decided to buy 1,000 ventilators immediately", the Minister tweeted.

He said the government has already taken steps to buy ten lakh masks, and decided to purchase five lakh PPE.

"The Health Department has been working on a war- footing to halt the spread of the (COVID-19) infections", Sriramulu tweeted.

The Minister appealed to the citizens to strictly follow social distancing.

Six new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Karnataka on Sunday, taking the total number of infections to the respiratory disease to 26 -- the highest number of positive cases in a single day in the State.

The Karnataka government has announced shutdown of all commercial activities barring essential services in nine districts, where COVID-19 cases have been reported, till March 31.

They are: Bengaluru city, Bengaluru Rural, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Kalaburagi, Dharwad, Chikkaballapura, Kodagu and Belagavi, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

Mysuru, Jan 20: Fears over CAA and proposed NRC have affected the ongoing 7th economic census. Following complaints of violence against enumerators and registration of FIR with people declining to give information, the state government has asked deputy commissioners and superintendents of police to hold awareness programmes about it.

The planning, programme monitoring & statistics department has requested the home department to provide cooperation at the police station level while additional chief secretary P Ravi Kumar, in his letter to all DCs, has asked them to create awareness. According to sources, enumerators in T Narasipura town of Mysuru district faced resistance as some residents misunderstood the reason for this census.

A senior officer of the directorate of economics and statistics said that additional chief secretary (ACS- Planning, Programme Monitoring & Statistics Department) Shalini Rajneesh has written to the home department and superintendents of police of all districts seeking their help to create awareness about the economic census.

According to sources in the directorate, in many places, people are refusing to share information under the misconception that it is related to CAA/ NRC. “Many are mistaken about the economic census. As a precaution, police help has been sought,” an officer said.

Authorities in Mysuru said the 7th economic census began on December 20 and will conclude on March 30.

“In Mysuru city alone, we need to cover a population of 11 lakh. In T Narasipura, we faced problems due to misconceptions about Census and CAA. We reported the incident which happened in an area where minorities reside in large numbers,” he explained. Mysuru SP CB Rishyanth said his office has not received any direction in this matter.