Bengaluru court complex sealed after constable posted at premises gets COVID-19

Coronavirus

This is the second time that the Mayo Hall court complex in Bengaluru has been sealed due to a coronavirus case.

TNM Staff

File photo

The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate 11's court at Mayo Hall complex in Bengaluru has been sealed for two days starting Thursday after a police constable posted there tested positive for coronavirus, a court official said on Wednesday. "As the constable attached to the magistrate's court has tested positive on Wednesday, the Karnataka High Court Chief Justice has ordered sealing the entire Mayo Hall complex on June 11-12," High Court Registrar General Rajendra Badamikar said in an order. As the entire complex will be sanitised, all appointments granted to the members of the bar for physical filing, payment of court fee and process fee, and hearings shall be cancelled in all courts of the complex on Thursday and Friday. "The Principal City Civil & Sessions Judge, Bengaluru, will ensure that in case of urgency, the matters may be heard only through video conferencing," said Badamikar in the order. Most urgent cases in the Karnataka High Court are already being heard via video conferencing. This is the second time in a week that the Mayo Hall complex has been closed to the public due to a coronavirus case. On June 5, the Registrar General of the Karnataka High Court had issued a notice regarding the closure of the complex after an accused who appeared before the courts had tested positive virus. “In view of testing positive for COVID-19 by an accused, who was produced before the (Tenth) Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mayo Hall unit, Bengaluru on June 1, 2020, at 4.45 pm, in order to sanitize the entire premises of the Mayo Hall Court Complex, all the appointments granted to the members of the Bar for physical filing, payment of court fee, process fee etc., including physical hearing shall stand cancelled in all the Courts in Mayo Hall unit at Bengaluru, on Saturday, June 6, 2020. No one shall enter the entire Mayo Hall Complex on Saturday, June 6, 2020,” the order had then stated.

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Quarantine fatigue: Governors reject new lockdowns as virus cases spike

State officials, reluctant to damage reopening economies, contend they are better equipped for a new wave of cases.

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Former judge demands resignation of Mysuru Catholic bishop, raises serious allegations

Controversy

Retired justice Saldanha has written to church authorities saying that the bishop should resign ‘before he destroys the church in India’.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

File photo of KA William

Following serious allegations being raised against the current Bishop of Mysuru KA Willian, former judge of the Karnataka High Court, justice Michael Saldanha has written to superiors in the Church-- the Archbishop of Bangalore and to the Cardinal in Mumbai--- demanding the Bishop's resignation. The Bishop has been facing allegations of sexual misconduct, of having been in relationships (a taboo for serving priests in the Catholic church), as well as allegations of corruption. His name has also been dragged into a controversy relating to the death of a senior priest who had raised his voice against the bishop. The allegations of sexual misconduct and corruption have been previously reported by TNM. Read: 37 Catholic priests and a woman accuse Mysuru Bishop of sexual misconduct, corruption However, the allegations of covering up a murder are new. In his first letter on 24th May, Justice Saldanha has alleged that the Bishop has fabricated evidence to cover up a murder of one of the priests who signed the letter accusing the bishop of various offences.  Robert Rosario, one of the people who have filed police cases against the Bishop told TNM that a priest named William Albuqurque died on March 2, not due to cardiac arrest but due to unnatural causes. "He as said to have died due to a heart attack, but it is said that the body has serious injuries. The Mysuru Crime branch has called in the Bishop for questioning." The Bishop has also been accused of threatening those priests who complained against him. Bangalore Mirror reported on Monday that the 37 priests who had complained against the activities of the Bishop had been transferred to rural areas, despite many of these priests being highly qualified academics and were into reserach and teaching. In his second letter on May 29, Justice Saldanha has alleged that the transfers were made 3 minutes after a group call and it was an act of vendetta. However, Judge Saldanha said that despite all this, the Archbishop seems unwilling to take action against the Bishop. “The Archbishop of Bangalore has the authority over him, but he is saying that only the Pope in the Vatican has the authority. But it doesn’t take a lawyer to know that he (William) is bound by Indian laws. Why should he wait for an authority in Italy?” he asks. Saldanha further accused the Archbishop and the Bishop of colluding with each other, hence the inaction. “The church has a problem of having too much money. During the Coorg floods two years ago, the church held a concert and raised nearly 50 crores for flood relief. But the money has disappeared, and no relief work has been taken up. An entire team is working on this issue and gathering evidence, which I have looked at, and is credible. There are serious criminal charges against this Bishop and he must resign.” The Archbishop of Bangalore’s office was unavailable for comment.

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42 new COVID-19 cases in Bengaluru, most had influenza like symptoms

Coronavirus

65 among the 120 new cases were returnees from Maharashtra.

TNM Staff

Karnataka reported 120 new COVID-19 cases in the state on Wednesday among which 42 were from Bengaluru city, the district having the most number of fresh cases reported as on June 10. 22 out of the 42 cases reported from Bengaluru are patients with Influenza-Like Illness with no known source of infection.  8 patients returned to the city from other states including Maharashtra, Haryana and Tamil Nadu while one international passenger who returned from Kuwait also tested positive. 4 new patients were contacts of a 38 year-old patient who tested positive for the virus on May 25 after reporting Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). She was a resident of a slum in DG Halli in the city, which is now a containment zone. Wednesday is also incidentally the day with the lowest daily addition of new cases since May 29. Yadgir in Hyderabad-Karnataka region reported the second highest number of cases for the day with 27 positive cases. With this, it is the second worst affected district in terms of the total number of active cases. While Yadgir has 560 active cases, Udupi the worst affected district and has 619 patients currently undergoing treatment. However, no new cases were reported in Udupi on Wednesday.  Vijayapura and Kalaburagi reported 13 and 11 new cases respectively, while all other districts reported five cases or less. With a total of 257 patients across the state discharged from hospitals following their recovery, the state has 3,108 active cases while the total number of cases stand at 6,041. Out of the 3,108, 14 patients are in Intensive Care Units. Among the 120 new patients who tested positive on Wednesday, 68 were interstate travellers, while three were international travellers. Among the 68 interstate travellers, 65 were returnees from Maharashtra. As many as 25 patients among the 120, who tested positive on Wednesday, have no relevant travel or contact history but had ILI. Another five patients have no relevant travel or contact history, while in 16 other cases were of patients who were in contact with already infected patients.  The bulletin also reported three new deaths including that of a 32-year-old Bengaluru man, taking the COVID-19 death toll in the state to 69. The bulletin said the Bengaluru resident was brought dead on Wednesday at a designated COVID-19 hospital. The other two fatalities involved a 58-year-old man from Dharwad and a 57-year-old Bengaluru resident. This meant Bengaluru Urban has the highest number of COVID-19 fatalities with 21 deaths. No other district has more than eight deaths as of now.

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Karnataka to restart testing dead bodies of those who died with COVID-19 symptoms

Coronavirus

“I cannot tell you why they took that decision in the first place but they have reversed it after we wrote to the Health Department,” a member of the advisory committee told TNM.

Soumya Chatterjee

Representational image/PTI

The Karnataka Health Department on Wednesday said that it would continue testing deceased patients, who suffered from Influenza-Like Illnesses or Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), for the novel coronavirus. The same was confirmed by Pankaj Kumar Pandey, state Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare Services in a series of tweets. This development comes a day after the clause pertaining to tests on deceased patients with a history of ILI and SARI was done away with by the state government. However, the Health Department restored the clause on directions from the government of India. Many COVID-19 patients have underlying ILI, SARI and other respiratory conditions even though they do not travel or contact history. Dr Giridhar Babu, a member of the technical committee, which advises the state government to make interventions based on daily data of COVID-19 cases, said the decision was reversed based on the recommendation given by them. Dr Babu is an epidemiologist at Public Health Foundation of India.  “I cannot tell you why they took that decision in the first place but they have reversed it after we wrote to the Health Department,” he told TNM.   Accordingly, the Health Department said that it would collect swab samples within six hours of the death of such patients. In case of coronavirus positive reports, all primary contacts of the deceased would subsequently be tested. He said that the state government is committed to test more people for the coronavirus in an effort to control the transmission. The move to not test deceased patients with related symptoms had attracted criticism from the epidemiology fraternity, who feared it would lead to further increase of untraced cases. Even the state’s nodal officer for COVID-19 testing Dr CN Manjunath expressed dissatisfaction over the move.  When asked about what led to the decision and the subsequent U-turn, Dr V Ravi, the head of Neurovirology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) said, “You should ask this question this to the Additional Chief Secretary (Jawaid Akhtar).” Dr Ravi is also part of the committee, which advises the state government to make interventions based on daily data of COVID-19 cases.  While TNM could not elicit a response from Pankaj Kumar Pandey or Jawaid Akhtar, a source claimed the decision was taken following a video conference between state and Union government’s health department officials. Need for testing symptomatic dead patients Karnataka is doing significantly better compared to other high-population states in terms of managing the COVID-19 pandemic, and this has been attributed primarily to efficient contact tracing, containment measures and testing.  Karnataka has 96.86 COVID-19 cases for every million population is the sixth highest in the country for the number of tests per million population, according to data tabled by the State War Room as of June 9. While the positivity rate of India on average is at 6%, Karnataka has a positivity rate of 1%, meaning 1 person tests positive for COVID-19 for every 100 people tested. Further analysis by the War Room showed about 65% of 60+ years COVID-19 patients die if they have SARI. An official explained that it is important for persons who are elderly and who have comorbidities or who have SARI to reach the designated hospital at the earliest. He added that it is to be noted that most of the deaths occured when infected elderly or persons with SARI and other symptoms delay reaching designated hospitals.  “Average days spent at hospital by recovered patients is about 15 days but the average days spent in hospital of patients who died is about 3.5 days. So persons dying are reaching designated hospitals too late and hence, recovery becomes tough. So in case of breathlessness or SARI, patients should approach government  designated fever clinics and get tested,” he added.  ‘No shortage of test kits’ While it is unclear what led the Health Department top brass to take the decision of not testing deceased patients with symptoms, officials in the department denied that shortage of testing kits was an issue. Dr N Manjushree  Additional Director, Karnataka State Drugs Logistics and Warehouse Society (KSDLWS) confirmed the state has enough stocks of Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) kits to perform 10,000-plus tests everyday for the next 30 days. Until May 18, the state, on average, was testing less than 5,000 daily. It began performing more than 10,000 daily tests since May 28. So far the highest single day tests were done on June 3 with 15,197 tests.

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Karnataka bans online classes for students up to Class 5

Education

Karnataka Education Minister Suresh Kumar announced that pre-recorded classes will however be allowed.

Prajwal Bhat

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The Karnataka government on Wednesday announced that live virtual classes cannot be held for students of lower kindergarten, upper kindergarten and primary classes (Class 1 to 5) in the state. Pre-recorded classes, however, will continue for those classes. Fees for online teaching for these classes will also be halted with immediate effect.  Some schools in Karnataka have been holding live classes for students from Classes 4 to 7. These will immediately be halted till class 5. The announcement was made by Karnataka Education Minister Suresh Kumar in a press conference held on Wednesday. Online classes can continue for secondary classes.  The minister added that a committee will be formed to discuss how to engage students and the modalities of both online and pre-recorded classes. It was noted that many complaints around online classes were received from parents from across the state. On June 2, a meeting was held with those working in education, psychiatrists and other experts to discuss the issue.  “The screen time for certain classes and what will be appropriate will be discussed later. For now, we have made this decision for LKG, UKG and primary classes, considering their age and mental well-being,” the minister told the media. Earlier, experts from NIMHANS had stated that virtual classes ideally should not be held for students up to Class 3. Citing the World Health Organisation’s recommendation, Dr BN Gangadhar had told TNM that those under 6 years of age should not have more than one hour of screen time. The decision to have online classes for children has received a lot of criticism across the country. For one, it is based on the assumption that everyone has access to a laptop or computer as well as steady internet services to attend these classes. Further, the move also came without proper norms.

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Karnataka to decide on online classes, NIMHANS says not recommended for below class 3

Education

Commissioner of Public Instruction KG Jagadeesh said that a WhatsApp forward stating that online classes have been cancelled for students of classes 1 to 5 is fake.

Prajwal Bhat

The Department of Education and the Department of Public Instruction in Karnataka are yet to take a decision on whether it will cancel or continue online classes for school students in the state. Commissioner of Public Instruction KG Jagadeesh said that a WhatsApp forward stating that online classes have been cancelled for students of classes 1 to 5 is fake. "Department has not taken any decision on online classes yet. There are few complaints we received from parents. We are in the process consultation and we may come out with certain guidelines soon," Jagadeesh told TNM.  A WhatsApp forward message which was widely shared had claimed that the online classes were cancelled for those studying from classes 1 to 5.  "The government has decided to cancel online education for grades 1 to 5 amidst strong objections from the public sector, education experts and parents.  Experts worried that educating young children online could have a serious impact on health.. Accordingly, the government will cancel the online education of children from level one to grade 5, including government, private, subsidized and unaided schools," read the forwarded message. However, officials of the Karnataka education department including Education Minister S Suresh Kumar met on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the issue of holding online classes for primary school students in the state. The officials had also sought the opinion of mental health professionals at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) regarding the issue Speaking to TNM, Dr. BN Gangadhar told TNM that NIMHANS had recommended that online classes should not be held for students up to 3rd standard.  "This is based on the World Health Organisation's (WHO) recommendation that those under 6 years of age should not have more than one hour of screen time. We also feel that lessons for those under this age is not too complex and it can be managed by family members teaching the kids. The teachers of nursery and playschool have also not received any training on how to teach children online," Dr. BN Gangadhar told TNM. He said that online classes should be explored for students studying in higher classes.  No guidelines have been issued for holding online classes in Karnataka although it has been more than a week since the academic year started and online classes were rolled out for private schools in the state. Meetings held last week over the issue proved to be inconclusive but students and parents are hopeful that the government issues guidelines for schools to clear up the confusion over online classes.   

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