IMD issues red alert in Karnataka districts

Bengaluru, Feb 2: The monthlong budget session beginning on Monday, which will mark BS Yediyurappa’s maiden budget in his fourth term as chief minister, is expected to be a fiery one.

The opposition JD(S) and Congress have already threatened to stall proceeding until BJP legislator Basangouda Patil Yatnal apologises for his controversial remarks against freedom fighter and centenarian HS Doreswamy. Yatnal had called him a fake and a Pakistani agent.

Disruptions are also likely to pose a threat to speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri’s novel idea of having a two-day discussion on the Constitution of India to commemorate 70 years of the country’s Independence.

Both opposition parties have scheduled legislature party meetings early on Monday and they could coordinate on issues on the floor of the house to put the BJP — especially Yediyurappa — on the backfoot.

Yatnal is not known as a “hardliner”, but his attack on Doreswamy has garnered support from several ministers including CT Ravi, KS Eshwarappa and V Somanna. Yediyurappa may have a hard time defending his party’s line.

The BJP is yet to schedule its legislature party meeting, but MLAs suggest the party will allow the issue to be raised and debated in the legislature. “Both have expressed their point of view. Let there be a discussion on the matter, but not allowing the house to function will only be a waste of the state’s time and money,” said deputy chief minister CN Ashwath Narayan.

Besides the Doreswamy issue, Yediyurappa will also deliver his reply — postponed from February 20 — to the debate on the governor’s address. The issue of student Amulya Leona Narona’s arrest on a charge of sedition, the Bidar sedition case involving a parent of a school student, pro-Pakistan writings on walls in places in north Karnataka, introduction of NPR and the anti-CAA stir is also likely to feature during the lengthy session.

Mangaluru, May 4: No major crowds were seen in the coastal city of Mangaluru today except in front of the liquor shops after the district administration relaxed the lockdown norms for 12 hours a day (between 7am and 7pm).

There was no mad rush of vehicles either on city roads when the relaxed lockdown began. There were fewer people to buy essentials in front of grocery and vegetable shops as they had time till late evening.

There was no let down in the number of police pickets as well as curbs on vehicular movement across the city either. 

The government has allowed sale of liquor in CL2 (standalone wine shops) and CL 11 (MSIL outlets) to mop up revenues when Lockdown-3 commenced from Monday. Compared the other parts of Karnataka, the size of queues in front of liquor shops in Mangaluru were smaller. 

Like other parts of the country, the lockdown was imposed in the coastal district on March 24 to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Prior to that, a curfew was imposed in the district from March 22 midnight. The lockdown did not apply to essential services such as sale of food, groceries, milk, vegetables, fruits, and meat and fish. Gradually the district administration had to intensify the lockdown and allow those shops to remain open only between 7 a.m. and 12 noon. 

With the lockdown relaxation extending till 7 p.m., Mangaluru today witnessed people and private vehicles moving freely in the afternoon for the first time in more than a month. However, only those who had to go for work and do other essential activities were seen on roads. After 7 p.m. movements of all kinds of vehicles will be prohibited. 

The relaxation was to facilitate economic activities that had come to a standstill during the first two phases of lockdown. Mangaluru City Police Commissioner Dr P S Harsha, meanwhile, warned the people against misusing lockdown relaxation and venturing out without any genuine reason.

The current physical distancing guidelines provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may not be adequate to curb the coronavirus spread, according to a research which says the gas cloud from a cough or sneeze may help virus particles travel up to 8 metres. The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, noted that the the current guidelines issued by the WHO and CDC are based on outdated models from the 1930s of how gas clouds from a cough, sneeze, or exhalation spread.

Study author, MIT associate professor Lydia Bourouiba, warned that droplets of all sizes can travel 23 to 27 feet, or 7-8 metres, carrying the pathogen.

According to Bourouiba, the current guidelines are based on "arbitrary" assumptions of droplet size, "overly simplified", and "may limit the effectiveness of the proposed interventions" against the deadly pandemic.

 She explained that the old guidelines assume droplets to be one of two categories, small or large, taking short-range semi-ballistic trajectories when a person exhales, coughs, or sneezes.

However based on more recent discoveries, the MIT scientist said, sneezes and coughs are made of a puff cloud that carries ambient air, transporting within it clusters of droplets of a wide range of sizes.

Bourouiba warned that this puff cloud, with ambient air entrapped in it, can offer the droplets moisture and warmth that can prevent it from evaporation in the outer environment.

"The locally moist and warm atmosphere within the turbulent gas cloud allows the contained droplets to evade evaporation for much longer than occurs with isolated droplets," she said.

"Under these conditions, the lifetime of a droplet could be considerably extended by a factor of up to 1000, from a fraction of a second to minutes," the researcher explained in the study.

The MIT scientist, who has researched the dynamics of coughs and sneezes for years, added that these droplets settle along the trajectory of a cough or sneeze contaminating surfaces, with their residues staying suspended in the air for hours.

"Even when maximum containment policies were enforced, the rapid international spread of COVID-19 suggests that using arbitrary droplet size cutoffs may not accurately reflect what actually occurs with respiratory emissions, possibly contributing to the ineffectiveness of some procedures used to limit the spread of respiratory disease," Bourouiba wrote in the study