111-year-old Shivakumara Swamiji hospitalised

Bengaluru, Jul 20: Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy has urged the Karnataka government to stop putting warning signboards in front of COVID-19 patients' houses alleging that they are leading to "social discrimination and untouchability" in the present times.

"A local government warning signboards in front of the homes of COVID-19 infected people is leading to neo-social discrimination and untouchability in the new age. Even after infection, the individual and family should live with dignity. The government should immediately stop the practice of placing signboards," Kumaraswamy's first tweet read.

"Instead of placing them in front of their homes and creating untouchability, send health workers to their homes to create courage and awareness. They should be told not to leave the house. There is no such degrading practice left behind. I would like to ask Chief Minister Karnataka BS Yediyurappa to pay attention to this," he added.

The former chief minister further said that threatening to cancel the licenses of medical colleges for refusing treatment to patients would not solve the problem and urged the government to take them into confidence instead of rebuking them.

"Refusing treatment is the fault of any hospital. But for the same reason, threatening to cancel government medical college licenses is not right. There is no profit in this emergency of health. MCI also has the power to revoke the licenses of medical colleges. Remember not the government," he said.

"In this case, the government should look to the Medical Colleges to get their services in order to get them to trust them instead of getting angry. Let them focus on meeting their needs. I insist on a collective fight against the coronavirus through this," he further added.

The COVID-19 count in Karnataka reached 63,772 on Sunday, including 39,370 active cases and 23,065 cured and discharged patients.

Tumakuru, Apr 12: Fearing the spread of COVID-19 in Muddenahalli village, the villagers shifted to living in tents in nearby fields with most of their belongings.

Kariyappa, one of the villagers said, "We were scared of the COVID-19 spread, so we came here."

Around 60 families of the village lived in tents for three days, before they returned to their houses on the advice of the Tehsildar.

So far, 214 COVID-19 cases, including six deaths, have been reported in the state of Karnataka.

With 34 deaths and 909 new positive COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus cases in India on Sunday reached 8356, including 716 cured and discharged, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Bengaluru, Mar 12: The Karnataka government on Wednesday clarified that no coronavirus "emergency" has been declared in the state and that all the schools and offices will remain open.

Earlier, there were fake reports that Karnataka has declared "coronavirus as an epidemic" in the state.

In a statement, Karnataka health commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey refuted the reports doing rounds on social media which said Karnataka had declared COVID-19 as a "state epidemic".

Refuting the rumours, he added that all the schools, offices and other institutions will continue to function normally in the state.

The Karnataka government earlier today issued temporary regulation which asked all government and private hospitals to have flu corners for screening of suspected cases of COVID-19.

According to the regulation, no person/institution shall use print or electronic media to spread mis-information on COVID-19 without prior permission of the department of health & family welfare. If a person is found indulging in any such activity, they will be punished, it said.

The Karnataka government also started a campaign called 'Namaste over Handshake' that encourages people to greet in the traditional Indian style, to tackle the spread of the virus.

The state has reported four positive cases of coronavirus so far.

India, so far, has 60 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 16 Italians tourists.