Monday's results "boost confidence" that the company can moved into phase II trials very quickly to determine if the vaccine is effective.
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Monday, May 18, 2020
44 COVID-19 patients in coastal Karnataka linked to a hospital, but officials yet to find source
Dakshina Kannada district officials are examining whether the source of the cluster of cases is linked to a woman who was admitted to the hospital and her daughter-in-law who visited her.
Last Tuesday, when a 38-year-old woman tested positive for COVID-19 in Dakshina Kannada, it became clearer to authorities that many cases in three districts in the coastal belt of Karnataka were linked to one hospital - First Neuro Hospital, a dedicated neurosciences health centre located in Padil in Mangaluru. 15 cases in Dakshina Kannada district are directly linked to the hospital. 29 more cases in Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada are also linked to the same hospital. First Neuro’s 200-member staff have been quarantined in the hospital’s premises for the past three weeks. But the district administration in Dakshina Kannada is yet to pinpoint the source of the virus despite testing more than 800 people in connection with this cluster. They are still investigating the source of the transmission, whether it started from patients who received treatment in the hospital in the last two months or if they had come into contact with someone who has the virus. “The source of the infection is still inconclusive. We are looking at whether the source is from Bantwal where the first two deaths were reported in the same family. But we are also looking at other sources since First Neuro Hospital takes in patients from many places including Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Kasargod in Kerala,” Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner Sindhu Rupesh told TNM. Three members working in First Neuro have tested positive for the virus, according to the DC. A six-member committee led by Dr. Ramachandra Bairy, Dakshina Kannada District Health Officer, is currently examining the hospital’s link to the cases emerging in the district. In addition, a group of experts from the RGICD are also examining the cases but have made no breakthrough on P-0 in this cluster. First Neuro Hospital being sealed off in April First Neuro patient from Bantwal tests positive Speaking to TNM, Dr. Rajesh Shetty, the Managing Director of First Neuro Hospital says that a 75-year-old woman from Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada district, was admitted in the hospital on March 8. This patient did not report with symptoms of coronavirus and was receiving treatment for other ailments. She was shifted to the ICU of the hospital on March 18 and was shifted to a ward when her condition improved on April 1. A day later on April 2, her daughter-in-law, a 50-year-old woman, visited her in the hospital for the first time since she was shifted out of the ICU. “The woman was asymptomatic when she visited the hospital so we did not know at the time about any link to the coronavirus,” says Dr. Rajesh Shetty. More than two weeks later on April 18, the daughter-in-law was admitted at the Wenlock District Hospital in Mangaluru after she was diagnosed with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). A day later on April 19, she died at the hospital. Following her death, her test results showed that she was COVID-19 positive. “It was only around this time we realised that the woman who died had visited our hospital. The police told us that there has been a death and the patient was related to one of the patients admitted here,” adds Dr. Rajesh. Soon after, the mother-in-law who was being treated at First Neuro Hospital was shifted to Wenlock District Hospital on April 22 and succumbed a day later. She too tested positive for COVID-19. Dr. Rajesh says that the hospital was sealed off and the staff were quarantined inside soon after the death was reported. He also says that the hospital has shared information with the district administration from February 1 about the out-patient department and in-patient department patients at the hospital. "We take in patients from Kerala, Udupi and Uttara Kannada like many hospitals in Mangaluru and we have shared the information with district authorities," Dr. Rajesh says. Following the death of the 75-year-old woman, the district administration scrambled to compile the details of the patients who have visited First Neuro Hospital in April. “As soon as the second death was reported, we collated the information of IPD patients from April 1 to April 23. This information was shared with neighboring districts on April 27. The data about OPD patients was shared on May 5 since we took some time to collate it. There was no delay in this process,” Dr. Ramachandra Bairy, Dakshina Kannada DHO told TNM. Cases in Uttara Kannada linked to First Neuro On April 20, a family of three from Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district including a couple and their five-month old baby visited First Neuro Hospital. The trio had travelled with permission from authorities and had spent the day in the hospital from 9 am to 3 pm and returned to their residence in Uttara Kannada on the same day. Two weeks later on May 5, the family tested positive for COVID-19, prompting district officials in Uttara Kannada to examine whether cases emerging in their district had a link to First Neuro Hospital. “We suspected that this hospital could be the source and we asked the Dakshina Kannada district administration to provide a list of patients from our district to visit First Neuro Hospital in April. 10 people from Uttara Kannada visited the hospital in April and they were tested for COVID-19,” says Uttara Kannada Deputy Commissioner Harish Kumar. Of the ten patients, three tested positive Officials point out that when the family of three from Uttara Kannada district visited First Neuro Hospital on April 20, the 75-year-old woman from Bantwal who later tested positive for the virus was at the hospital. She was shifted out of the hospital to the designated COVID-19 hospital only two days later on April 22 and she succumbed on April 23. However, district officials in Dakshina Kannada say that despite indications that the hospital could be linked to the spread of COVID-19 cases in their district and in Uttara Kannada, they are yet to conclusively trace the source of the spread. “It could be through the cases that came through Bantwal but it could also be through the cases that spread in Uttara Kannada. Since the hospital takes many patients from Kasargod in Kerala, the source could be from there too,” says Dakshina Kannada DC Sindhu Rupesh. What has further confused the officials is that a family member of the Uttara Kannada couple had got COVID-19 before they turned up at the hospital with their child. So, it is also being investigated if this family member was patient zero. Dakshina Kannada DC Sindhu Rupesh also says that the source could be from a patient from Kasargod, Kerala visiting the hospital. “We have shared information with Kasargod district too about the patients who visited this hospital. We are yet to hear whether their test reports have returned negative,” says Sindhu Rupesh. The district administration is not counting the cases that emerged from Bantwal among the cases linked to First Neuro Hospital and are waiting for clarity on the source of the virus before establishing the link. "If we count the cases from Bantwal, then the number of cases linked to this hospital will be more. We want to pinpoint the source of this spread but more importantly, we want to contain it,” Sindhu Rupesh adds.
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Karnataka announces dates for SSLC and II PUC exams, masks compulsory for students
Each student will mandatorily have to wear a mask while coming to the exam hall, which will be sanitised, Primary and Secondary Education Minister B Suresh Kumar said.
Representation photo
The Karnataka government on Monday announced that Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) exams will start on June 25 and end on July 4. The II Pre-University College (PUC) exams were held prior to the lockdown except for the English paper. The II PUC English exam will be held on June 18. In Karnataka, SSLC exams are held for Class 10 students in the state board. PUC exams are for Class 12 students in the state board. There will be one day’s gap between the English, Mathematics, Science and Social Sciences exams, as several students had requested the education department for the same. The time table will be announced shortly, the education department said. The SSLC examination was earlier slated to be held between March 27 and April 9. The exams were delayed due to the ongoing lockdown and were postponed until further notice. The II PUC English paper was to be held the day after the Janata Curfew. However, a lockdown was imposed and the exam was postponed as well. Primary and Secondary Education Minister B Suresh Kumar on Monday said that 43,720 students appearing for the SSLC exams this year have been allocated 2,879 exam halls. “Health Department officials advised us to have physical distance between students in each exam hall. Each student will mandatorily have to wear a mask while coming to the exam hall. Scouts and guides volunteers are making one mask each for each SSLC student. In Shivanahalli, the Ramakrishna Mission will send 2 lakh masks for Bengaluru South and Ramanagara district. There are many others who are helping to ensure students have at least two masks,” Minister Suresh Kumar said. Hand sanitisers will be provided to all exam halls. The real estate company Embassy Group is providing hand sanitisers for 71 exam centres in Bengaluru. Thermal scanners will be provided to each centre to check the body temperature of each and every student. Health Department officials will check students’ body temperature. “Scouts and Guides volunteers will have booths at each exam hall where they will ensure students use sanitisers before entering. If any student who enters the hall has a fever or other symptoms, other arrangements will be made for that student in a separate space so he or she can write the exam separately,” Suresh Kumar added. All exam halls will be sanitised daily before and after the exam. Prior to the lockdown, the hostels constructed by the Social Welfare Department’s, the SC/ST Hostels and the Morarji Desai residential schools had housed students. However, the students have returned home due to the lockdown and these buildings are now housing patients under institutional quarantine. “In those hostels, all students will not be able to write exams in centres close to the hostel or school as they would have earlier. Within May 25, we will make arrangements so they can write exams at centres close to their homes. The students in hostels have gone back home and school principals will collect details of where they live so they can get hall tickets to write exams in centres closer to their places,” Suresh Kumar said.
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After 10-yr delay, Karnataka govt to begin constructing Tungabhadra balancing dam
The dam is being constructed as the state is losing 31 TMC of water per year due to the silt accumulated in Tungabhadra reservoir.
Representation photo
After a 10-year delay, the Karnataka cabinet had finally approved the construction of a balancing reservoir along Tungabhadra river in Navali village as the state was losing out a lot of its share of water due to the silt accumulated in the Tungabhadra dam. The state government on Sunday gave its nod to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) to construct the Navali Balancing Reservoir. Karnataka Niravari Nigam Limited has been asked to prepare the DPR. We have worked out a new plan to address the storage problems of Tungabhadra reservoir due to the accumulation of silt in the reservoir’s bed. This has resulted in less storage of water in the dam. Keeping this in view, the state cabinet has accorded permission to prepare the DPR to build Navali Balancing reservoir, Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi said. The storage capacity of the Tungabhadra reservoir is 134.7 TMC water. However, due to mismanagement, the dam was never desilted since it was constructed in 1953. Due to the excessive silt accumulation, the storage capacity of the reservoir has reduced by 31 TMC. According to Manjappa, executive engineer of the Tungabhadra dam, the dam management authorities had to desilt the dam every year. Each year 0.5% silt gets accumulated. Since desilting has never been done, there is so much silt that entire villages would have to be acquired to dump the silt that is removed, Manjappa said. In 2017, the state government had called for global tenders to determine the feasibility of desilting the dam. Manjappa says the feasibility report stated that the project would cost Rs 5600 crore and it would require 67,000 hectares of land to dump the silt extracted from the dam. Due to this herculean task, none of the tenders floated by the government were taken up by companies. In 2010, global tenders were floated and two companies had submitted a desilting plan. However, the companies backed off due to technical and financial reasons. In 2012, a Kochi-based company, which had won the tender to desilt the dam, backed out of the project just a few weeks before the desilting process was to begin. A senior official with the Water Resources Department said that over the years, many tenders were floated and due to the logistical and financial difficulties, none of the companies were willing to take up the task. In 2017, farmers of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha had decided to begin desilting the dam themselves. The farmers had begun the process too. By the end of 2017, the state government held meetings with farmer associations and promised to construct a balancing reservoir. In order to utilise Karnataka’s share of water, the state government is planning to construct the Navali Dam in Koppala district. “I thank Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa for approving the project. Directions have been issued to release Rs 14.30 crore towards preparation of the DPR. Desiltation of the dam has been pending for many years, and Yediyurappa has taken up this cause to help farmers for agriculture purposes,” Minister Jarkiholi added.
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Karnataka reports 84 new COVID-19 cases, many have travel history to Maharashtra
The spike in cases was attributed to the inter-state travel of stranded persons returning to the state.
PTI : Image for representation
The Karnataka government on Monday reported 84 new coronavirus cases in the Monday morning bulletin. 56 of the cases reported on Monday — or two out of every three cases — had inter-state travel history to a location in Maharashtra. The spike in cases was attributed to the inter-state travel of stranded persons returning to the state. The new cases in the state were reported in Bengaluru Urban 18, Mandya 17, Uttara Kannada 8, Raichur 6, Kalaburagi 6, Gadag 5, Yadgir 5, Vijayapura 5, Hassan, 4, Koppal 3, Belagavi 2, Mysuru, Kodagu, Bidar, Ballari, Davangere (1 each). Among the 18 cases in Bengaluru, 16 patients are secondary contacts of patient 653, a 34-year-old housekeeping staff at Shifa Hospital located on Queen’s Road in Bengaluru. He is the contact of a nurse at the same hospital who earlier tested positive for the virus. The cases in this cluster are traced to a 42-year-old patient with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) who visited the hospital after he had trouble breathing on April 3. The two other cases reported in the city have inter-district travel history to Dabaspete in Nelamangala and inter-state travel history to Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Among the two places, Chennai has recorded a high number of coronavirus cases. With the latest set of cases, Karnataka has reported coronavirus cases in 27 of its 30 districts with Raichur and Koppal becoming the latest district to record cases in the state. All six patients reported in Raichur have travel history to Mumbai in Maharashtra while three cases were reported in Koppal district with travel history to Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. 17 more coronavirus cases were also reported in Mandya. All the patients have a travel history to Maharashtra. On Sunday, 21 cases were reported in the same district, most with travel history to Maharashtra. Similarly, eight new coronavirus cases were reported in Uttara Kannada district of which seven patients returned to the state from Mumbai. There are now 672 active cases in the state while 521 people have made a complete recovery after being infected by the virus. 37 patients infected have died so far since the first death of a coronavirus patient was confirmed in the country in Kalaburagi district on March 10.
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Karnataka Lockdown 4.0: Buses, autos, taxis to ply, complete lockdown on Sundays
Except for malls, theatres and hotels, all other commercial establishments can open.
The Karnataka government on Monday announced that buses will be allowed to ply outside containment zones during the lockdown that is in place till May 31 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa held a cabinet meeting along with the heads of various departments to discuss the specifications of Lockdown 4.0 on Monday morning, after which he addressed the media. All commercial establishments except for malls, hotels and theatres will be allowed to open in all areas except for containment zones. This includes barbershops and salons. The Chief Minister said that there will be a complete shutdown on Sundays and all commercial establishments except for essential services will remain closed. It can be noted that the state government has not issued any clarification on whether bars and pubs can remain open. “The lockdown will be extended till May 31. Containment zones will be under tight security. All buses will be allowed to ply from tomorrow (Tuesday) except for in containment zones. Private buses can also ply. But there is one condition. In one bus only 30 people can travel. Physical distancing must be maintained and wearing masks is mandatory in public including buses. If people fail to wear masks, fines will be imposed,” Chief Minister Yediyurappa said. Speaking to the media, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said all buses including BMTC (Bengaluru Metro Rail Transport Corporation), KSRTC (Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation), NESRTC (North-East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation) and NWSRTC (North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation). Private buses have also been allowed to ply. Only 30 people can travel in each bus as physical distancing must be maintained. Autos and taxis will be allowed to ply starting Tuesday. In autos, two persons, excluding the driver, can travel. In normal taxis including Ola and Uber, two persons, excluding the driver, can travel. In Maxi cabs, three passengers excluding the driver can travel. Wearing masks is mandatory in autos and taxis. Inter-district train travel will begin from Tuesday. However, interstate train travel except for Shramik trains will not be allowed till May 31. The state government announced that it will not allow visitors from states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu to enter till May 31. Those coming in from other states will have to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine. “We will allow those with an absolute necessity to travel from other states,” CM Yediyurappa added. The state government is allowing all parks to remain open at certain intervals during the day. Parks can open between 7 am and 9.30 am and 5 pm and 7 pm daily.
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'Immunity passports' won't reopen America
Antibody apps may still find a niche in the workplace
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