Latinos age 25 to 54 have a coronavirus mortality rate at least five times greater than white people.
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Friday, June 19, 2020
Men should cut back on booze, federal panel says
Limiting alcohol and added sugars are among the recommendations an influential advisory committee is about to send to the government.
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Thursday, June 18, 2020
Karnataka reports 210 new cases of coronavirus, 12 succumb to disease
Of the 12 deaths, eight were from Bengaluru Urban. Seven of these people passed away earlier, and have been added after data was reconciled.
PTI in New Delhi/ Representative image
Karnataka has reported 210 new cases of coronavirus in the state on Thursday, taking the active cases in the state to 2,843. 12 new COVID-19 deaths were reported on Thursday. So far, there have been 7,944 COVID-positive cases reported in Karnataka. Of the 210 cases, 17 are from Bengaluru Urban. Of the 12 deaths that were reported, 8 are from Bengaluru Urban. 58 of the new patients have interstate travel history. 21 of the new cases have been reported with a history of international travel, taking the total new COVID-19 patients with travel history to 79. The rest of the cases have contact history or reported to be SARI (severe acute respiratory infection) or ILI (influenza-like illness) cases. While eight of the 12 new deaths reported are from Bengaluru, said that most of these deaths have been reported in the bulletin well after the date on which they passed away. The bulletin notes that the data has been reconciled with the CCU (coronary care unit) and SSU (short stay unit). First of the deceased was a 57-year-old man who returned to the state from Bihar, was admitted to hospital on June 3, and passed away on June 6. Another was a 58-year-old man who returned from Ballari to Bengaluru, and had a history of hypertension and diabetes. He was admitted to hospital on June 6 and died on June 13. A third patient was a 39-year-old man who was diagnosed with ILI, was admitted to hospital on June 7 and died on June 14. A fourth patient was a 40-year-old woman who was admitted to the hospital on June 8 and died on the same day. A fifth patient was a 68-year-old man who was diagnosed with SARI with complaints of fever. He was known to be suffering from chronic heart disease and chronic kidney disease conditions. He was admitted to hospital on June 11 and died on June 13. The sixth was a 74-year-old woman who was known to have diabetes and hypertension. She was admitted to hospital on June 14 and died on June 15. The seventh was a 65-year-old who had a fever and a history of diabetes. She was known to have diabetes. She was admitted on June 13 and died on June 17. The last of the eight deaths reported from Bengaluru on Thursday was actually from Thursday. The deceased was a 31-year-old man diagnosed with ILI. He was admitted to hospital on June 13 and passed away on June 18. The other four deceased persons from outside Bengaluru suffered from breathing difficulties. In Kalaburagi, it was a 50-year-old man who complained of cough and breathlessness and was suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). In Kopalla and Vijayapura, the patients were women of age 50 and 66 respectively and both of them were suffering from SARI, among other comorbidities. In Bidar, a 55-year-old man passed away, and had complaints of breathlessness and was a resident of a containment zone. With the additions of Thursday’s cases, Kalaburagi, Bengaluru Urban and Yadgir are the worst affected districts with all of them having 400-plus active cases. While Kalaburagi has 457 active cases, Bengaluru and Yadgir have 408 and 405 active cases. With the recent spurt of cases, Ballari and Dakshina Kannada have 200-plus patients undergoing treatment for COVID-19. The state government said that 71 patients on ventilators. The maximum cases have been reported in Bengaluru urban district, with 33 people in the ICU. Kalaburagi has reported twelve. Simultaneously, Karnataka has reported 179 recoveries from coronavirus, taking the total recovered patients from coronavirus to 4,983 cases. The maximum number of recovered cases have been reported in Udupi district, with 38 recoveries. Ballari reported 37, Kalaburagi reported 32, Mandya reported 15 and Bengaluru Urban reported 14 recoveries.
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COVID-19 exposes lack of beds, inadequate facilities in north Karnataka
With lack of tertiary level hospitals at taluk-level, adequate beds and healthcare staff, districts in north Karnataka are struggling to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
PTI/Representation Photo
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed India’s healthcare system, with state governments across the country scrambling to increase beds, hire epidemiologists and other specialists and purchase lifesaving equipment like ventilators. In Karnataka, the novel coronavirus has laid bare the state’s north-south divide. Karnataka has a total of 22,872 beds to treat COVID-19 patients, but the state’s health infrastructure is disproportionately distributed with more facilities in its southern districts – a testament to decades of political patronage. “The number of health centres in the southern districts is more than northern districts. Southern districts have more Primary Health Centres and Tertiary Health Centres and the population is also more here,” said Omprakash Patil, Director of Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Department. But it’s not just a question of more, the quality of healthcare is also better in southern districts. “The tertiary level hospitals are also better equipped in southern districts. The big problem in north Karnataka is that taluk-level government hospitals are not well equipped like the ones in the south. The northern districts have fewer oxygen beds and ICU beds compared to southern ones,” Omprakash added. So, how many beds are there in Karnataka? According to data obtained from the Health and Family Welfare Department, Karnataka currently has 84,712 beds across all the government and private hospitals. Of these, only 27% – or 22,872 beds – have been allocated to tackle the COVID-19 situation. The state has 18,874 isolation beds, 2,075 ICU beds, 6,702 oxygen beds and 999 ventilator beds. This is spread across designated hospitals for those who are severely ill; designated health centres for those with moderate symptoms; and COVID Care Centres for those with mild symptoms. As many as 62.62% of beds allocated for COVID-19 in the state are concentrated in south and south-central Karnataka districts. Unsurprisingly, Bengaluru has the most number of beds for COVID-19 in the state, at 14.6% of the total. In contrast, eight remote districts of north Karnataka account for just 21.97% of the total beds available in the state. This includes Raichur, Uttara Kannada, Gadag, Koppal, Yadgir, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura and Bidar. Further, most of these beds have been set up in COVID Care Centres, with the district administration converting hostels, schools and colleges into isolation facilities, where doctors and medical staff from government hospitals monitor patients on a rotational basis. Deputy Commissioners in northern districts are following the triage protocol – assigning patients to a facility based on the severity of their symptoms. Remote districts like Gadag and Koppal have a meagre 276 and 227 beds in total respectively. Raichur has 752 beds and Vijayapura has 424 beds. Kalaburagi fares better with 1,905 beds for COVID-19, out of which 36% are in the two designated hospitals. The remaining beds are located in hostels and colleges. Now compare the health infrastructure in these districts to Karnataka’s COVID-19 caseload as of June 16. Out of the 2,824 COVID-19 patients who are admitted in hospitals across the state, nearly 40% are from the northern districts of Bidar, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Dharwad, Yadgir and Ballari. In south Karnataka, Bengaluru (413), Udupi (134) and Dakshina Kannada (225) have the most number of patients. The worry, however, is that with lockdown restrictions easing, the case in the north have jumped – and can increase further – as migrant workers return from states like Maharashtra. Yadgir Deputy Commissioner Kumra Rao said, “Jobs in north Karnataka are hard to come by. The reason why the number of cases are more in northern districts is because people who went to Maharashtra in search of jobs, are now returning to their homes. Hence, the number of cases in northern districts is more than those in southern districts. In areas like Mysuru and Bengaluru, migrant workers are leaving these places.” But unlike the south, northern districts have only one or two designated COVID-19 hospitals to treat those who are critically ill. Deputy Commissioners that TNM spoke to say that if a situation arises where the number of COVID-19 cases increases, they would have to look to private hospitals for assistance. “Even if patients are taken to private hospitals, they will have to bear hospital costs. In rural areas, most people do not have insurance cover and this could become a problem,” a senior Health Department official said. For instance, in Raichur, which is one of the backward districts in the state, the district administration has had to house low-risk patients with COVID-19 in hostels and colleges that have been converted into isolation facilities. “In Raichur, the taluk hospitals are not equipped with oxygen beds, ICU beds and ventilator beds. As of now we have two hospitals in the district, namely the Raichur Institute of Medical Sciences and the Rajiv Gandhi OPEK Hospital, where COVID-19 patients are housed. Since a large chunk of patients are asymptomatic, we came up with a plan to convert colleges and hostels into isolation centres and manage with what we have,” said R Venkatesh Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Raichur district. Similarly in Kalaburagi district, which has 442 patients presently, there are 354 beds for COVID-19 patients in designated hospitals, which include the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences and the ESIC Hospital. “We have four medical colleges in Kalaburagi city and there are more AYUSH, nursing colleges. The contingency plan is to identify 7,000 beds in COVID Care Centres. We are identifying such places where there will be a minimal staff,” Kalaburagi DHO MA Jabbar said. Uttara Kannada has only 180 beds at the designated COVID-19 hospital, meant to treat patients with severe symptoms with 15 ventilators across the district. “We are looking at increasing COVID Care Centres. If patients are asymptomatic, they need a bed and a doctor’s assistance but it is not necessary for all patients to be hospitalised. In such cases, a hostel is better than a hospital to treat patients. Health workers can monitor the patient’s oxygen saturation and shift patients to hospitals if necessary,” said Uttara Kannada Deputy Commissioner Harish Kumar. However, in southern districts like Dakshina Kannada and Bengaluru, where the infrastructure is well developed, the district administrations have not had to convert hostels and colleges into isolation facilities. Dakshina Kannada, for instance, has eight medical colleges, in addition to Wenlock Hospital, which is currently the only one housing COVID-19 patients. Dakshina Kannada also has 67 private hospitals, which the government can convert into designated hospitals or health centres in case the need arises. Bengaluru meanwhile has a total of 19,359 beds across all hospitals, of which 3,324 have been dedicated for the purpose of COVID-19. In case of a surge in cases, Bengaluru too has several private and government hospitals to fall back on, as the data above suggests. “We will also need hospitals to treat those who do not have COVID-19 and all private hospitals cannot be roped in,” reminded Omprakash Patil. “In addition, works are underway in Raichur, Vijayapura, Bidar, Yadgir, Uttara Kannada and other districts in the north, where piped oxygen supply can be provided to all taluk hospitals. These works have been fast tracked so that those from economically weaker sections, who require critical care, can also undergo treatment at government hospitals since most taluk hospitals lack tertiary level infrastructure,” Lack of investment in public healthcare Successive governments have allocated meagre sums of money to the Health and Family Welfare Department. Moreover, most of these funds were diverted towards the developments of healthcare facilities in Bengaluru city and the southern districts like Mysuru, Tumakuru, Ramanagara, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. While population is one reason, there are also political motivations for the same. Congress and JD(S) governments, whose vote banks are primarily in the south, in the past neglected the northern districts to retain their vote banks. In the 2020-21 fiscal, the Karnataka government allocated only 4.6% of the total expenditure to health. This allocation is less than the national average of 5.3%. Of Rs 10,296 crore allocated for health, only Rs 1,413 crore was allocated for development of health services in rural areas. Similarly in the 2019-2020 budget, only 4.4% of the total expenditure of Rs 2,34,153 crore, was allocated for the health sector. The 2018-19 fiscal, 4.3% of the total expenditure of Rs 2,18,488 crore was allocated for health. Are there enough doctors? A shortage of beds is only part of the issue. According to the Health Department, there is a 30% shortage of healthcare staff in Karnataka currently. Under the National Health Mission, there are 23,000 healthcare employees across the state including doctors, specialists, paramedical staff and lab technicians. This number excludes Accredited Social Health Activists or ASHA workers, who at the community level, track health indicators of residents. “We are now going to hire approximately 1,000 specialist doctors, 400 General Duty Medical Officers and more paramedical and lab technicians. The shortage we are facing is for nurses, doctors and lab technicians,” said Omprakash Patil. Officials with the Health Department said that despite super specialty hospitals constructed in districts like Kalaburagi and Raichur, not all districts have such facilities run by the government. In addition, the number of healthcare staff appointed in northern districts is very low. “Specialist doctors are not available here. They may have the infrastructure but these districts lack physicians, pulmonologists, cardio-thoracic surgeons, and other specialists that southern districts have,” an official said.
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Hubballi-Ankola rail project: Karnataka HC scraps clearance given by state govt
The contentious rail project has been facing stiff opposition from environmental activists for over two decades now.
In a relief for environmental activists, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday stayed the clearance given by the State Wildlife Board for the controversial Hubballi-Ankola railway line project. The 168-kilometre-long railway line was proposed to run from Dharwad district to Uttara Kannada, cutting across the fragile ecosystem of the Western Ghats. On Thursday, the court asked the National Wildlife Board to not go forward with the proposal sent by the state government. The decision came as a Bench, led by Chief Justice AS Oka, was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Bengaluru-based conservationist Vijay Nishanth on behalf of his Project Vruksha Foundation, a conservation NGO. “The Hon'ble High Court issued notices to all respondents, granted ad-interim relief to the petitioner and stayed the decision of the chairman taken in the 14th meeting of the Board, held on March 20. The Hon'ble Chief Justice also observed that the question raised in the PIL requires further examination and directed all the respondents to appear before the Court on the next date of hearing of the PIL,” said Sreeja Chakraborty, the advocate appearing for Vruksha Foundation. Elaborating on the issue, Sreeja said a decision to cancel the project was taken unanimously by the State Wildlife Board on March 9. However, 11 days later, another meeting was convened only to discuss the project again, which had been rejected, said the advocate. Only six people were part of the second meeting, two among them cabinet ministers — Large and Medium Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar and Labour Minister Shivram Hebbar. Former Industries Minister RV Deshpande and Karnataka Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar were also present. But there is no recorded reason in the Board meeting that explains why the earlier decision was reversed and the project given the go-ahead. “So the judges read out the minutes of the meeting on March 9 and March 20 and compared them. They found there was no sound reason recorded to decide in favour of the project,” Sreeja said. The case will come up for hearing again on July 14. Controversy surrounding the case The 168-km proposed rail route connecting Hubballi in north Karnataka and the port of Ankola through the eco-sensitive Western Ghats has been opposed by green activists for long. According to estimates, two lakh trees will be wiped to make way for the project, including those in the Kali Tiger Reserve and the Bedthi Conservation Reserve. Over the past 20 years, the project has been opposed even in the Supreme Court and was rejected by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
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Bengaluru’s iconic British Library to shut its doors and go fully digital
The library building will be converted into a centre to conduct International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and other United Kingdom examinations.
British Council website
The British Council Library, a nostalgic icon of Bengaluru, is closing its doors for physical memberships and moving to a completely digitised platform. The library opened sixty years ago atop Koshy’s Parade Cafe located on St Mark’s Road and was shifted to another facility on Kasturba Cross Road in 2002. The British Council announced earlier this week that five of its eight libraries in India would be completely digitised. In a communication to its physical members in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Pune, the British Council said it would now offer full online services and extended the online membership for existing physical members by 6 months. “The mobile app version of the digital library will be launched at the end of June for both Android and iOS platforms, offering a seamless and interactive customer journey which pulls together our content in one place and allows members to build their own library collection,” Antonius Raghubansie, Director Learning Services, British Council India said in a statement. While the library had around 20,000 books when it functioned above Koshy’s, the number of books gradually reduced to around 10,000 in recent years, Deccan Herald reported. Visited by Prince Charles in 1991, the library will remain close to the heart of Bengalureans. The annual Reading Challenge event will also be digitised starting 2020 with the available titles added to the digital library. The building on Kasturba Cross Road will now be converted into a centre to conduct International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and other United Kingdom examinations, which are run by the British Council Examinations and English Services India Pvt Ltd. “The demand for UK examinations, including IELTS, continues to grow and this change will provide many more young people with the opportunity to access internationally recognised qualifications as a route towards international mobility for work or study, and to improve their employability,” the British Council India statement said. “Overall, we aim to provide more opportunities for young Indians to engage with the UK through our services and programmes, accessible digitally to more people across India. We will continue to engage with state governments and partners and build on the large scale, high impact work in English, education and arts,” the statement added. While physical members had to pay Rs 2,200 per annum as membership fees, for the digitised library members will have to pay Rs 1,800 per annum. “It was a long-term strategy to move it completely to the digital sphere. The world is moving towards digital, and many members who don’t live near the library also wanted to access the books. Everyone wants everything at their fingertips to scroll and browse through, so we decided to digitise the whole library so people who live outside the city can become members too,” an official with the British Council in New Delhi said. The digital library will have books, journals, magazines, movies, graphic novels and more.
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Karnataka: PU-II English exam held after a delay of almost 3 months
Students with mild symptoms of COVID-19 were allowed to write exams in separate rooms.
The long pending pre-university (PU) II board exam for the English paper was held across Karnataka on Thursday as per the extended lockdown guidelines like wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing. "The 3-hour PU English exam was held peacefully at all the 1,000-odd centres across the state, after it was re-scheduled from March 27 due to the lockdown enforced on March 25 and extended till May 31," PU education department official K Veerabhadrappa told IANS. Though the board exams in all other subjects were held from March 4-24, exam for the English paper could not be conducted on March 27 due to the lockdown. "Nearly 6 lakh students appeared for the exam from 10:15 am to 12:30 p.m., as 15 more minutes were given to complete the paper, with two students sitting on a long bench at extremes," Veerabhdrappa said. As the students were told to report at the exam centre an hour before for thermal screening, hand sanitisation and entering the exam hall one by one to maintain physical distance, long queues were witnessed at all PU colleges where the paper was held. "Students from containment zones were seated in separate halls. Special arrangements were made for those with cough, cold or mild fever to ensure they don't miss the exam. Not many cases, however, were reported," said the official. The board has decided to hold the English exam later for those who could not write on Thursday if they or their family members tested Covid positive. "The affected students can write the English paper exam during the supplementary board exams in July and get admission to degree courses if they pass in all exams held," Veerabhadrappa added. All examination halls were sanitised before allowing students and staff inside. The colleges kept extra masks and santizers to ensure all students and the staff wore it and washed hands before entering the exam halls.
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