Covid-19 positive cases in Karnataka mount to 62

Bengaluru, May 12: Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that the Central and Karnataka government have failed in containing the coronavirus spread despite having enough time for preparations.

"Central and state government failed in properly controlling COVID-19. The first coronavirus case was reported in Kerala on January 30. Lockdown was imposed on March 24. Both Centre and state had enough time for preparations," Siddaramaiah said in a press meet here.

He said that the Central government did not stop the airline services on time.

"Karnataka government might have been able to stop COVID-19 properly. However, both the state and central government are playing politics over the issue and blaming Tablighi Jamaat for the spread, which is a political strategy painted by the RSS," Siddaramaiah said.

"Who gave the licence to Tablighi's international convention? Who gave them permission in Delhi? They didn't control it. Central government is directly responsible for the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in India," he added.

Siddaramaiah said that the lockdown was imposed without any preparation, which he said caused huge problems for the migrant workers across the country.

"Now, the government is collecting ticket fare and looting migrant workers. They don't have jobs or food, they don't have money, and they earn every day to survive. How will they pay for the tickets? Why the government is not arranging for free trains?" the Congress leader said.

He said that around Rs 35,000 crore have been credited to PM CARES fund, Rs 3,000 crore of which was credited from Karnataka alone. "Why are they not using that money?" he asked.

Siddaramaiah said that the party is demanding for the Centre to arrange for migrant workers to return to their native places across the country free of cost.

"We asked Chief Minister to call an all party meeting. We gave many suggestions, which this government did not consider. We also took a delegation and gave a memorandum about farmers, daily wage workers, road side vendors, barbers, problems faced by the unorganized sector. But this government didn't consider any of it," he said.

Questioning the Central government's suggestion to States to amend their Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Acts, Siddaramaiah said that the move is against the federal system of the country and claimed that it harms the interests of small scale farmers.

He said that the BJP-led state government has also decided to postpone the Gram panchayat elections in the state and is trying to nominate their party workers for village panchayat elections.

"The Government must continue with the present members of the Gram panchayat. If BJP tries to nominate their party members to village panchayats, we will take to streets to protest despite the lockdown," Siddaramaiah added.

Bengaluru, June 22: Even as the covid-19 positive cases are steadily increasing in Karnataka, an expert has claimed that community transmission has begun in Bengaluru and cases could keep rising over the next two months.

“If you look at the natural course of this virus across countries around the world, it is about six months. Now we’re in the fourth month. This will go on for another two months. It also sounds like this is the beginning of the peak. There is also a possibility of the number of cases going up from now on. Even across India, cases are increasing,” says Dr CN Manjunath, director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research and State Task Force member.

Besides the increase in number of cases, the virus is advancing silently, stealthily. A lot of people who are testing positive are asymptomatic. In areas like Padarayanapura, Nanjangud and many places in north Karnataka, there have been positive cases who have not had any contact with infected individuals. Some cases recorded in Bengaluru over the last two to three days have not had any contact with Covid-positive people.

Dr Manjunath adds: “We are in community transmission. This will happen because nature is ahead of everything. We have to take all possible precautionary measures at our command. This has to happen. Only then some kind of herd immunity will be developed.”

“We are expanding the guidelines of testing to include a large number of people to be tested. Now, according to the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines, only symptomatic Influenza like Illness (ILI) or Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), or a person coming in contact with an infected person are being tested.

But since we have crossed 100 days in Karnataka from the first reported case and we’re getting cases with no travel history or contact with a Covid-positive person, we have to start random testing across the sub-group population. Only then will we understand the burden of the disease and what precautions need to be taken,” he says.

Mangaluru, Apr 23: An astronomical phenomenon, ‘Zero Shadow Day', will be observed in Mangaluru on April 24 and in Udupi on April 25. 

According to a press release from Poornaprajna Amateur Astronomers’ Club, the wonder will commence and people will see their shadows disappear for a few moments at 12:28 pm.

The phenomenon is called as Zero Shadow Day. If a person takes a candle in a dark room and use it to create a shadow of one’s palm on the wall, the hand will cast shadow on the wall as one moves the hand. But when one places the palm on the wall, there will be no shadow.

In the phenomenon, the sun at these times shines exactly above the heads on these days. In astronomy, this point is called as Zenith. The point in the sky directly above an observer at any given location. So it is quite clear now that on Zero Shadow Day, the sun passes through the Zenith as a result of which, all objects will have minimal or no shadow if they are on the ground.

The reason for this happens on some specific days is concerned with astronomy. The earth spins around on its own axis and causes days and nights. It also revolves around the sun causing a year. But the seasons are caused because the axis is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees. It is because of this tilt that the sun rises every day in the east gradually moving towards the north till June 21st and then slowly proceeding towards the south till December 21st every year. “We call these days solstice. This means the sun shines between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn every day passing by the equator on the days we call equinox,” the release stated.

As the earth moves around the sun and revolves on its own axis, for all the people between Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, the Sun at noon moves father and closer to the zenith passing through zenith twice causing two Zero Shadow Days per year. People at Mangaluru will observe this on April 24 and August 18 every year and People in Udupi will observe this on April 25 and August 17 every year.

Places with same latitudes will observe the same days of Zero Shadow but the time would vary with longitude. For example, people of Bengaluru as they share the latitude with Mangaluru will also observe it on April 24. While the people of Mangaluru will observe their shadows disappear at 12.28pm, people of Bengaluru will observe this at 12:17pm. Places like Moodabidri, Bantwal, Sakleshpur and Hassan will also observe Zero Shadow on April 24.

Places like Brahmavar, Karkala, Sringeri, Kudremukha, Chikkamagaluru will observe the Zero Shadow Day on the same day as Udupi on April 25.