Bengaluru, May 20: 63 more COVID-19 cases have been reported from Karnataka, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 1,458 on Wednesday, said the state Health Department.
The total number of cases includes, 864 active cases and 41 deaths (one due to non-COVID cause), it added.
Total 10 people have been discharged today while 553 persons have been discharged so far.
Bengaluru, Mar 10: With concerns growing by the day, the Karnataka government is readying three more labs to test throat swab samples.
Currently, only two labs in Bengaluru — National Institute of Virology and Virus Research and Diagnostics Laboratory (VRDL) lab attached to Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute — are categorised biosafety level 2+, a requirement for coronavirus tests.
Now, the government is working on upgrading three more labs, one each in the government medical colleges at Hassan, Mysuru and Shivamogga. “The labs will be ready within one week,” the authorities said.
Currently, the labs are testing only throat swab samples of suspected patients and taking 24 hours to give the results. “A patient’s blood sample will be collected only if he or she tests positive for covid-19 infection in the first throat swab sample.
While earlier the state would send all samples of suspected coronavirus cases to NIV, Pune, the two labs were upgraded to biosafety level 2+ in mid-February.
Mangaluru, July 29: The police have managed to nab a youth in connection with issuing death threat against IAS officer Sindhu B Rupesh, the outgoing deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada.
The arrested has been identified as Ranjit, a resident of Bajpe, on the outskirts of the city. He is said to be Hindutva activist.
The death threat came in the wake of the officer’s warning against attack on cattle traders by anti-social elements ahead of Eid al-Adha.
Even though the IAS officer had not lodged any complaint, Moodbidri police had registered a suo motu case after a WhatsApp screenshot of the death threat went viral on social media.
Meanwhile, Sindhu B Rupesh was transferred and posted as director, electronic delivery citizen services (EDCS), DP & AR (e governance) Bengaluru.
Alappuzha, Jan 9: The houseboat of Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt was blocked in the backwaters here for some time by trade union activists, who were on a nationwide strike against the Centre's "anti-labour" policies on Wednesday.
Michael Levitt, an American-British-Israeli biophysicist and a professor of structural biology at the Stanford University in the United States, said the incident sent a bad message to tourists.
Levitt, who was in Kerala as a state guest, also said he felt as if a bandit had stopped his wife and him at gunpoint. Police said Levitt, who received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was in Alappuzha with his wife and they were stopped by the protesters near Kainakary.
"Being stopped by criminals on the backwaters sends a very bad message to tourists. It is as if a bandit stopped us at gunpoint and delayed us under the threat of force for one hour," Levitt wrote in an email to his tour agent at Kottayam.
In the email, which was later released to the media, he also said the person who blocked them "ignored all arguments that tourists were exempted" from the strike.
"This person, who did this, ignored all arguments that tourists were exempted and that I am a VIP guest of the Kerala government. He was obviously acting, knowing that he was safe from prosecution. Sadly, this makes me fear that India is sinking into lawlessness," Levitt wrote in the email.
The police registered a case after the houseboat owners filed a complaint in this regard.
Reacting to the incident, state Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said the government would take strong action. "Strong action will be taken against those anti-social elements who stopped the boat. Levitt was here as a guest of the state government. The government had made it clear that the tourism industry was exempted from the strike," he said.
Trade union leaders had also announced that the strike would not affect the tourism industry.
Ten trade unions, including the INTUC, the AITUC and the CITU, had called for the nationwide strike to protest against the labour reforms, FDI, disinvestment, corporatisation and privatisation policies of the Centre and press for a 12-point demands of the working class, relating to minimum wage, among others.
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