Sabarimala row: Hartal called in Kerala after senior Sangh Parivar leader's arrest

Kalaburagi, Apr 25: In order to make people aware about the precautionary steps required to be taken in order to contain the spread of coronavirus, Muslim clerics here are making announcements from mosques after 'Azaan' urging people to follow the government guidelines to keep infection at bay.

Speaking to news agency, Ateeq Ur Rahman Ashrafi, All India Imams Council Karnataka's state president, said, "Under our council, there are around 80 mosques and after Azaan we are spreading awareness about COVID-19. I also appeal to other mosques to make such announcements and follow government guidelines."

This year, due to the spread of the virus, Muslim clerics have requested people to offer prayers inside their homes and avoid any kind of social gathering.

The country is under lockdown till May 3. All religious places including mosques have been closed to stop the transmission of the highly contagious virus.

Mangaluru, May 13: Karnataka revised its standard operating procedure (SOP) for international passengers to allow pregnant women, children and senior citizens to entre home quarantine if they test negative for covid-19. 

The development comes after former minister and Mangaluru MLA U T Khader urged the government to follow the Kerala model in handling the repatriates and take extra care of pregnant women and senior citizens at Mangaluru and Bengaluru Airports.

Passengers will be initially dived into two categories. Category A includes passengers symptomatic on arrival while Category B passengers are those asymptomatic on arrival. 

While category A passengers will be directly shifted to covid-19 hospital, category B passengers will be sent to 14-day institutional quarantine.

If there are pregnant women, children below 10 years of age and senior citizens in category B, they will remain in institutional quarantine until they obtain a negative report (after throat swab testing for covid-19). It may take one or two days to get the throat swab testing report. 

Bengaluru, Jul 20: Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy has urged the Karnataka government to stop putting warning signboards in front of COVID-19 patients' houses alleging that they are leading to "social discrimination and untouchability" in the present times.

"A local government warning signboards in front of the homes of COVID-19 infected people is leading to neo-social discrimination and untouchability in the new age. Even after infection, the individual and family should live with dignity. The government should immediately stop the practice of placing signboards," Kumaraswamy's first tweet read.

"Instead of placing them in front of their homes and creating untouchability, send health workers to their homes to create courage and awareness. They should be told not to leave the house. There is no such degrading practice left behind. I would like to ask Chief Minister Karnataka BS Yediyurappa to pay attention to this," he added.

The former chief minister further said that threatening to cancel the licenses of medical colleges for refusing treatment to patients would not solve the problem and urged the government to take them into confidence instead of rebuking them.

"Refusing treatment is the fault of any hospital. But for the same reason, threatening to cancel government medical college licenses is not right. There is no profit in this emergency of health. MCI also has the power to revoke the licenses of medical colleges. Remember not the government," he said.

"In this case, the government should look to the Medical Colleges to get their services in order to get them to trust them instead of getting angry. Let them focus on meeting their needs. I insist on a collective fight against the coronavirus through this," he further added.

The COVID-19 count in Karnataka reached 63,772 on Sunday, including 39,370 active cases and 23,065 cured and discharged patients.