COVID-19: All those quarantined in hotels, lodges in B'luru to be shifted to govt facility

Coronavirus

As per the latest health bulletin in Karnataka released on Saturday evening, a total of 3,175 people have been asked to be on home quarantine.

Soumya Chatterjee

The Karnataka government has decided to shift all persons kept in home quarantine in Bengaluru in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, to mass quarantine centres, unless they have a residence in the city. Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare Department, on Sunday said, “All persons who are in home quarantine and are not residents of Bengaluru but are staying in hotels/lodges/hostels etc will be taken to mass quarantine centers of Department of Health and Family Welfare.” He added, “This is to help them as transport facilities are also stopped.” READ|  Lockdown in nine Karnataka districts including Bengaluru, essential services allowed As per the latest health bulletin in Karnataka, released on Saturday evening, a total of 3,175 people have been asked to be on home quarantine.  So far, 21 patients have tested positive for coronavirus in Karnataka including one 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi who succumbed due to his co-morbidities. He was the first victim of coronavirus in India. As part of a nationwide lockdown, in a meeting on Sunday between all the state Chief Secretaries and the Union Cabinet Secretary, it was decided that all forms of interstate travel, local and long distance trains, metros will be shut till March 31.  Further restrictions will be imposed on 75 districts in the country. Incidentally Karnataka has been on a partial lockdown since March 14. While the order was  Initially meant for a week, it has now been extended till March 31. Starting from Monday, all forms of public transport will also be withdrawn with only cabs and auto rickshaws allowed to ply the city’s roads in nine districts including Bengaluru Urban and Rural.  As part of the existing restrictions, all malls, theatres, pubs, bars, exhibitions and conferences have been asked to be shut down or deferred. Schools and colleges have remained shut, Pre-university (PU)-II exams are being held while all other schools examinations have been postponed until further orders. Further, all music festivals, club events, summer camps, sporting events were ordered to be cancelled. Local authorities and private establishments have been asked to shut down swimming pools, gyms, public parks and gardens. Government has assured there will be a steady supply of essential goods and asked people not to hoard items to prevent panic among the public. Companies have been asked to implement work from home wherever possible especially for Information Technology/Biotechnology companies. Weddings and private functions have been asked to be restricted to only a limited number of guests. People have also been advised to not visit hospitals except in case of emergencies, and dentists have been urged to not see patients as a preventive measure. 

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33-year-old Dharwad man tests positive for coronavirus, Karnataka tally now at 21

Coronavirus

Dharwad Deputy Commissioner Deepa Cholan said the patient returned from Australia via Dubai.

Soumya Chatterjee

Karnataka reported its 21-st case of coronavirus positive patient in the state, an individual from the Dharwad district. Deputy Commissioner Deepa Cholan said the patient, a 33-year-old man, returned from Australia via Dubai, Muscat and Goa on March 12. He is incidentally the first positive case reported from the district. READ| Karnataka seals its borders, announces two months free ration He was initially admitted to a private hospital in the district and has since been transferred to the  Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) in Hubballi. ANI quoted Cholan saying that the area surrounding the man’s residence in Hosayellapur area has been quarantined and contact tracing process is going on “A 33-year-old man with recent foreign travel history has tested positive for Coronavirus, contact tracing underway; a 3 km area around Hosayellapur where this infected person was living has been quarantined,” Cholan told ANI. READ| Karnataka has five more coronavirus cases, house help of patient contracts disease The district administration has also put checkposts in Nuggekeri, Kelgeri, and the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) area in Dharwad to screen incoming passenger vehicles. Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation is also spraying sodium-hypochlorite solutions on all incoming vehicles, and at populated areas including bus stations. Till Saturday afternoon, the district administration had put a total of 173 persons in home quarantine and a total of four persons have been placed in KIMS.  In addition to the statewide partial lockdown in the state, districts of Kalaburagi, Kodagu, and Davangere have imposed further prohibitory orders under Section 144(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code.  Among the other 20 cases in the state, one 76-year-old person from Kalaburagi had succumbed to co-morbidities. He had returned from Saudi Arabia and was being treated for pneumonia and other symptoms. Incidentally, he was also the first victim of coronavirus in the country. The Indian Council of Medical Research in its latest update has said India has 341 positive cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday afternoon including six persons who have succumbed to their illness. The first case to be detected in Karnataka was a techie who landed in Bengaluru from Dubai on February 20. He left for Hyderabad via bus a day later on February 22. After falling sick, he was taken to a hospital in Hyderabad where he tested positive for coronavirus disease.

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Lockdown in nine Karnataka districts including Bengaluru, essential services allowed

Coronavirus

Speaking to reporters, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that only essential services will be allowed to operate.

Prajwal Bhat

The Karnataka government has announced a lockdown in nine districts- Bengaluru urban, Bengaluru Rural, Dakshina Kannada, Mysuru, Kalaburagi, Dharwad, Chikkaballapura, Kodagu and Belagavi - till March 31.  Speaking to reporters, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that only essential services will be allowed to operate. The minister however clarified that grocery stores as well as medical services can remain open. Agricultural activities will be allowed to continue while auto and taxis will function. However, public transport like Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses and metro services will not operate till March 31. On Monday, public transport will be curtailed across the state after the state government extended the restrictions placed on BMTC and KSRTC buses for the Janata Curfew on Sunday. After Monday, public transport will be restricted in the 9 districts where a lockdown will be observed, Basavaraj Bommai stated.  Government offices will be open in the districts in the nine districts. The class 12 examination scheduled for Monday will go ahead as it is the last exam for the students of the class. The state government is working to ensure transportation is not an issue for students across the state.  The decision to lockdown 75 districts across India was taken at a high-level meeting held this morning with Chief Secretaries of all the states by the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. Government offices will be open in the districts in the nine districts.

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263 Indians brought back from COVID-19 affected Italy, sent to quarantine in Delhi

Coronavirus

The flight landed at around 10 am at Delhi airport after returning from Rome.

PTI

A batch of 263 Indians evacuated from Italy in view of the COVID-19 outbreak there were brought back to the country on Sunday and sent to a ITBP quarantine facility, officials said. "The special flight had 263 passengers. It landed at around 10 am at Delhi airport from Rome," an Air India official said. The Air India flight had taken off from the Delhi airport on Saturday. "All the 263 people are being taken to our quarantine centre in Chhawla area of south-west Delhi after thermal screening and immigration at the tarmac," an ITBP spokesperson said. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police quarantine already has 215 Indians housed since March 15 after they were similarly evacuated by a special Air India flight from Rome. The facility has earlier hosted two such batches of Indians and foreigners who were brought back from Wuhan in China in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. With the new evacuees, the total number of occupants currently being facilitated at the ITBP camp is 478. A batch of 215 evacuees from Milan in Italy are still there in the ITBP's Chhawla camp. They are part of those 218 who were shifted to the camp on March 15 after their evacuation from Milan. Two of them have been shifted to the Safdarjung hospital after they were found positive symptoms of coronavirus while one has been allowed to go home as he was found negative. Others are also tested negative. This is the fifth batch of evacuees which has been shifted to the ITBP centre in Chhawla so far. Accordingly, Air India had sent a Boeing 777 aircraft to Rome-Fiumicino International Airport in Italy on Saturday to bring back stranded Indians amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak which has claimed the lives of over 10,000 people across the globe. As per a senior Air India official, the flight was operated on a Boeing 777 extended range (ER) aircraft. Last week, Air India had sent an aircraft to Milan to bring back over 230 Indian stranded there. The airline has already suspended operations on Delhi-Rome and Delhi-Milan routes till March 28. With IANS inputs

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Karnataka seals its borders, announces two months free rations for all

Coronavirus

Screening of domestic passengers as well will be started at all airports in the state, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa told the media on Sunday.

Prajwal Bhat

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The Karnataka government on Sunday announced that the state has closed its borders, as the number of cases in the state rose to 20. Free ration for the next two months will be given to all in one go, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa told the media on Sunday. The government also announced that the ongoing SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) or Class 10 exams have also been postponed and a revised date will be announced later. However, the Pre-University or PU-II exams, scheduled to be held on Monday, will go on as planned.  Screening of domestic passengers will be started at all the airports in the state. The government also directed people to refrain from moving cities to villages for the next 15 days. All essential services will continue to function in the state. Addressing the media on Sunday, the Chief Minister also said that Bengaluru’s Victoria Hospital, with 1,700 beds, will be dedicated for the treatment of COVID-19 and people with and without symptoms will also be tested, as per the revised Central guidelines. “With permission from the Indian Council of Medical Research, we decided to include private and government hospitals for lab testing. There is no need for anyone to stock up. We have decided to give ration of two months in one go,” Yediyurappa said. The state is under partial lockdown till March 31 and 20 cases have been reported in the state till Sunday morning. All malls, pubs, restaurants, and theatres in the state have been closed down. Officials of the Bengaluru police have said that those people seen outdoors during the ‘Janata Curfew’ on Sunday will face action. India is observing the curfew from 7 am and 9 pm as part of efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Across the country, 320 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported.

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COVID-19: Cubbon Park and Lalbagh Garden in Bengaluru closed

Coronavirus

Karnataka is under a partial lockdown till March 31. All malls and theatres are also shut.

TNM Staff

The two age-old and iconic lung spaces in Bengaluru — the Lalbagh Botanical Garden and Cubbon Park — have been shut since Saturday in a bid to prevent public gathering amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This decision has been taken by the Horticultural Department as an extension to the partial lockdown put in place by the state government. Earlier reports have said that there was already a steady dip in the number of visitors to these parks in wake of the pandemic. Following Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s order, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner BH Anil Kumar had also asked people to refrain from using the open gym facilities or walk in the city’s parks. As part of the advisory, he said, “Open gym equipment inside the parks must strictly not be used as the metallic surfaces are a potential source of infection if it gets in contact with an infected person.” He added, “Refrain from any gatherings in such places for socialising, failing which the very purposes of all preventive measures get defeated.”  In addition to the existing lockdown, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao has said that the police will strictly enforce the 14-hour Janata curfew called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi between 7 am and 9 pm on Sunday. The statewide lockdown ordered by the Chief Minister till March 31 has made it compulsory for all malls, theatres, pubs and exhibitions to remain shut to stop the spread of the virus. All conferences and cultural, sporting events have been ordered to be suspended until further orders. Private functions like weddings and birthday celebrations have been asked to be postponed or limit the number of guests to 150. The Information Technology (IT) companies have been asked to inform its employees to work from home, barring those involved in essential and critical services. As of March 22 morning, Karnataka has 20 positive cases of COVID-19. This includes the death of a 76-year-old man (in Kalaburagi) with comorbidities, who was tested positive for coronavirus.

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COVID-19: Class 10 exams in Karnataka postponed, but PU-II to go on as scheduled

Coronavirus

All schools and colleges have already been closed as part of the statewide partial lockdown effective till March 31.

Soumya Chatterjee

The Karnataka government on Sunday announced that the ongoing SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) or Class 10 exams have been postponed until further notice in wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The revised dates of the examinations will be declared at a later time. A spokesperson of the Education Department said that this decision has been taken after consulting with Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. \ However, the Pre-University or PU-II exams will be held as scheduled on Monday, Minister S Suresh Kumar said in a video message.  /p> This decision by the Education Ministry comes after the Education Minister S Suresh Kumar had already postponed the examinations for students in Classes 7, 8 and 9 in the state till March 31 on March 15. At the time, the minister had said that the interim period should be used by students as study leave.  Currently, all schools and colleges are already closed as part of the statewide partial lockdown effective till March 31. The lockdown ordered by the CM means that all malls, theatres, pubs and exhibitions across the state will remain closed to avoid gatherings till March 31. Further, other forms of public and private functions have been restricted.  All conferences and cultural, sporting events have been ordered to be postponed until further orders.  Further, on Friday,  Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan said that all employees in the Information Technology (IT) and Biotechnology companies will work from home, with exception to those discharging mission-critical and essential services. The government issued a strict guideline to that effect. The police department has been ordered to give fresh permission for events only after consulting the health department. As of Sunday morning, Karnataka has 20 positive cases of COVID-19, including the death of a 76-year-old man in Kalaburagi.  In addition to the lockdown in the state, Bengaluru city police have said that it will strictly enforce the 14-hour Janata curfew called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi between 7 am and 9 pm on Sunday.        

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