Difficult to control grown-up children; my son should be punished: Rai

Bengaluru, May 16: At least 23 new COVID-19 positive cases have emerged in the past 19 hours, raising Karnataka''s tally to 1,079, a health official said on Saturday.

"New cases reported from Friday 5 p.m. to Saturday noon are 23," said the official.

Among the 1,079 cases, 548 are active and isolated in designated hospitals across the state, 494 patients got discharged and 36 died of the virus.

In the past 19 hours, cases spiked in Benglaluru Urban, the place hosting the highest number of coronavirus cases in the state.

Of the new cases, Bengaluru Urban reported 14 cases, followed by 3 in Hassan and Mandya, Ballari, Bagalkote, Davangere, Dharwad and Udupi, 1 each.

All the 14 cases, men, from Bengaluru Urban were secondary contacts of positive case 653.

All Hassan, Dharwad and Bagalkote cases had a history of inter-state travel to Mumbai, Maharashtra, India''s largest sufferer of Covid.

A 46-year-old man from Ballari had a travel history to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, another major COVID-19 hotspot state in India.

A 40-year-old man from Mandya had inter-district travel history to Kolar and Bengaluru.

A 1-year-old infant girl from Udupi had international travel history to Dubai.

Among the new cases, 15 are contacts of earlier cases.

Of the all cases, 20 are men and three women.

Only four of the 23 cases are above 50 and 18 below 40.

Of the 1,079 cases, 12 per cent patients were senior citizens, 66 per cent men and 34 per cent women with a discharge rate of 44 per cent.

Bengaluru, Jul 1: Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on Wednesday played down reports about confusion regarding valuation of Second Pre- University and the Secondary School Leaving Certificate exam papers.

"Creating confusion has become a habit. There was confusion before the exam, during the exam and now confusion about the valuation of the exam papers," Kumar told reporters in Ramanagara when asked about the confusion over the valuation of answer sheets.

He had gone there to inspect a few centres where the SSLC or the 10th standard exams are underway.

The minister reminded people not to speak about the abilities of the students with contempt.

"Our students have toiled hard and are enthusiastically appearing for the examination. They are eligible for the marks they will score. So we should not speak about our children with disrespect," Kumar said.

The Education Minister said he had spoken to many leaders including former chief ministers Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy on conducting the examinations.

"Kumaraswamy had insisted on postponing the examination. I personally spoke to him and apprised him about the steps taken by us. I told him that we will work with more sincerity to ensure the safety of the children," Kumar said.

The SSLC exam was scheduled to take place from March 27 but due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, it was postponed.

While the CBSE and a few other states either decided to give marks based on the students' performance in the previous examinations such as quarterly and half-yearly exams or gave general promotion to the students, Karnataka went ahead to hold the exam.

According to Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board officials, around 8.5 lakh students have enrolled this year for the SSLC examination.

The exams are being held at 2,879 exam centres across the state.

Prior to the SSLC examination, the last exam of the Second PUC was also conducted on June 18, which was also put on hold due to the lockdown.

Bengaluru, Apr 16: The Karnataka government on Wednesday identified 14 departments as essential and asked all its employees to attend work during the extended period of lockdown to check coronavirus spread in the state.

According to a circular issued by Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar, all classes of officials/employees in these departments must attend to their work.

The departments are: Health and Family Welfare, Medical Education, Home, Revenue, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Urban Development, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Information and Public Relations, Transport, Energy, Personnel and Administrative Reforms (e-Governance), Finance (including treasuries), Animal Husbandry and Fisheries and Forest, Ecology and Environment.

In all other departments, only Group-A officers have been directed to report for duty.

However, those visually-impaired or physically-

handicapped are exempt from work, the circular said, adding that this norms will be valid till April 19.