IED recovered from Mangaluru Airport defused safely; 3 teams formed to nab suspect: Top cop

Bengaluru, Apr 28: Karnataka has found that the rapid antibody test kits for COVID-19 that the Centre supplied to the state have only 47% sensitivity. The state will be returning the kits to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Karnataka had received 11,400 rapid antibody test kits from the ICMR a few days back, out of which it had sent around 200 of them to NIMHANS for validation.

After the ICMR, on Monday, sent a circular to all states to return the test kits to the suppliers, Dr CN Manjunath, Director, Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, and nodal officer for lab testing in the state's COVID-19 task force, said, "We have cancelled the orders we placed to Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech and Zhuhai Livzon Diagnostics for one lakh rapid antibody test kits. Since the ICMR supplied us with 11,400 kits out of the 6.5 lakh kits it procured, we will be returning the kits to them."

Manjunath told said that the validation at NIMHANS revealed the kits to have only 47% sensitivity. Sensitivity is the ability of a test to identify the true-positives in a population, i.e., the actual number of people who've been infected with the disease. With the rapid antibody testing kits being shelved, the state's plan to randomly test high risk groups has taken a backseat. 

So far, the state has tested 43,791 samples. 

Karnataka now has 22 testing facilities -- 14 government and seven private labs. Many private labs have not tested any samples so far because of the lack of test kits (the state has made it clear that it will not provide test kits to private labs). So, getting an ICMR approval for testing has become a moot point.p

Agreeing to the setback the state's plans of ramping up testing has taken, Manjunath said, "It is true that RT-PCR test kits are in shortage. Even Pune's Mylabs had a shortage in supplying test kits. But we are relying on institutes like Kidwai, Narayana Health and Biocon's Syngene that have received approval for testing. They're big institutes and we hope that they will test a large number of samples."

On reports that the Centre has RT-PCR test kits that will last for only a week, he said, "We have test kits that will last for eight to 10 days. We have ordered for more. We are hoping to receive them before the current kits run out."

Kalaburagi, Feb 27: Kalaburagi police has issued notice to AIMIM leader Waris Pathan to appear before the investigation officer to give his statement in connection to the controversial statement that he recently made during an anti-CAA rally.

"We have already served notice to appear and the date is 29th. He is supposed to give his statement. Some people have already recorded their statements," said Kalaburagi Police Commissioner MM Nagaraj.

Recently while addressing an anti-CAA rally in Kalaburagi, the AIMIM leader had said: "Time has now come for us to unite and achieve freedom. Remember we are 15 crores but can dominate over 100 crores."

Mangaluru, Mar 1: A youth lost his life in a lift crash at a wedding hall at Kallapu near Thokkottu on the outskirts of the city today. 

The deceased has been identified as Hamzah (30), a resident near Thumbay, who was part of the catering team hired for the marriage ceremony. 

The tragedy occurred at around 2 p.m. when Hamzah was getting ready to bring utensils and other things by lift from the third floor of the hall. All of a sudden, the lift’s ropes came loose and Hamzah lost his balance and got trapped inside.

He was pulled out and rushed to a hospital in Deralakatte, but he breathed his last on the way. He is survived by his wife and three children.