COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Bengaluru, 783 people test positive

Coronavirus

The number of cases in Bengaluru accounted for over 61% of the 1,267 cases reported in Karnataka on Sunday.

TNM Staff

PTI : Image for representation

For the second consecutive day, Bengaluru reported a significant jump in COVID-19 cases after 783 more people tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the city on Sunday. This is the highest increase in cases reported in a day in Bengaluru so far. It also comes a day after the capital city reported 596 COVID-19 cases on Saturday. In the three preceding days, the city reported 144, 113 and 173 cases respectively. The number of cases in Bengaluru accounted for over 61% of the 1,267 cases Karnataka on Sunday. It is also the highest increase in cases reported in Karnataka. A total of 5,472 patients are undergoing treatment in Karnataka. Of this, 243 patients are being treated in intensive care units (ICU), of which Bengaluru accounts for 155 patients.  Five other districts reported more than 30 cases on Sunday: Dakshina Kannada (97), Ballari (71), Udupi (40), Hassan (31) and Kalaburagi (34). Gadag reported 30 cases while Bengaluru Rural reported 27 cases. Dharwad and Mysuru reported 18 cases each. Bagalkot (17), Uttara Kannada (14), Haveri (12) and Kolar (11), too, reported COVID-19 cases. Sixteen COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state on Sunday, of which four were from Bengaluru. Three deaths were reported in Dakshina Kannada, two each in Tumakuru and Bagalkote districts and one each in Kalaburagi, Ballari, Mysuru, Hassan and Dharwad.    The Karnataka government has identified more spaces in Bengaluru to be turned into COVID-Care Centres, where asymptomatic patients will receive treatment. Patients with symptoms, including mild to moderate symptoms, will be treated in hospitals. The state also tweaked its quarantine rules on Sunday. It has removed the three-day mandatory institutional quarantine for travellers coming to the state from Tamil Nadu and Delhi. Now, travellers from all states, barring Maharashtra, will have to undergo 14-day home quarantine while travellers from Maharashtra have to undergo seven days in institutional quarantine followed by seven days of home quarantine.   

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Teen dies outside exam centre after dropping sister, family claims cops assaulted him

Death

The police have denied the family’s allegation, and said the 18-year-old died because of a heart ailment.

TNM Staff

Shivappa Chalavadi, the father of the victim speaks to the media

A teenager who dropped his sister at a Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination centre in Vijayapura district on Saturday, died outside the exam centre. He was suffering from a heart ailment but his family members told media personnel that police officials assaulted the youth before his death.  Sagar Chalavadi (18) from Basavana Bagewadi taluk had come to the Vishwachetana School examination centre in Hoovina Hipparagi village to drop his sister, a class 10 student, for her examination. After dropping her, he was reportedly waiting outside the examination centre when the police asked him to move away.  Sagar's family members alleged that he died due to an assault by the police. "My son came to drop his sister to the examination centre and the police have hit my son. He died due to that,” the victim's father Shivappa Chalavadi said. The witness is a resident of the same village and he answered questions from the media along with Shivappa on Saturday. The police have denied this allegation. According to Anupam Agrawal, Superintendent of Police of Vijayapura district, the teen was dispersed by police officials along with other people who were near the examination centre. The police official said that Sagar left from the examination centre at 1.30 pm to pick up some seeds for his farm along with another resident of his village – Basappa Lakshman Chalavadi.  “He travelled on a bike and had an accidental fall. He died due to a heart ailment. The rumours of police officers assaulting him to death are false,” the SP told TNM.  “How can the police say this (that they did not hit Sagar)? The proof is with us," Shivappa said. Sagar was rushed to the health centre at Hoovina Hipparagi and later shifted to the taluk hospital. When the family members reached the Basavana Bagewadi taluk hospital, Sagar was declared dead on arrival.  Tension prevailed in the victim's village on Saturday after the family held the police responsible for the victim's death. However, the police insisted that the post mortem report had suggested that there are no external injuries on Sagar's body and that a heart ailment was the reason for his death. The post mortem report is yet to be made public. 

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‘Don’t inform patients directly’: Karnataka govt notification to COVID-19 labs creates stir

Coronavirus

A public health professional aware of the COVID-19 situation in the state has criticised the move too.

Soumya Chatterjee

Representational image/PTI

In a controversial development regarding COVID-19 pandemic management, the Karnataka government on Saturday passed a notification prohibiting labs of informing patients immediately once they test positive for the novel coronavirus. They said that the labs will have to send the details to respective district administration or local bodies, who will then inform patients. The decision sparked outrage from some activists and medical professionals as this may lead to more people ending up getting infected due to lack of timely intervention. Dr CN Manjnath, state nodal officer for COVID-19 testing, said there is a need for the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) to ramp up their squad to tackle the current crisis so that they can act much more swiftly. He said, “At this point there are some constraints, they are trying to digitally streamline the process further and reduce the inconvenience. We cannot let patients wait without a follow up. So the government has told us that we have to hire more ambulances and other infrastructure.”   Taking it to Twitter, Tara Krishnaswamy, a Bengaluru-based activist said, “Not informing positives immediately due to data logjam could cost lives and exacerbate spread. Please rectify the order immediately; your obligation is to people, not data.” A public health professional aware of the COVID-19 situation in the state criticised the move too. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said, “Particularly, we should be careful that infected people do not wander around spreading the infection. Hence, during this 4-5 hours, they should be in strict quarantine. This order only helps administrators for arranging logistics and isolation facilities.” But a BBMP officer involved in COVID-19 surveillance work for the disease defended the decision. He said, “The decision was made to streamline the entire exercise. Labs often have too much data to feed to the portal through which we get information and often the lag is 4-5 hours. In this mean time, often patients panic and call us or elected representatives. But once we have aggregate data of patients, we can work much more efficiently in a systematic manner.” Further Dr Pradeep Banandur, an epidemiologist working at National Institute of Mental Health And Nuuerological Sciences and closely working with the state government defended the move citing practicalities. He said, “Although the concerns raised by those opposing the move are genuine. In the past days we have seen that people often panic and try to make their own arrangements or go to their hospital of their choice. This multiplies the chance of infection where as per protocol it is expected those who are being tested remain isolated until test results are out.” Details of notification The notification dated Saturday (June 27) signed by Om Prakash Patil, Director of Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Services has asked both government and private labs not to inform the patients directly. The text of the notification reads,  “Maintaining the confidentiality of the result status is also crucial. Therefore, exercising power under Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 (Central Act 3 of 1897) & also in view of public interest, the following notification is made.” “1. The COVID Positive result status should not be conveyed to the individual by the authorities of the Govt Private Laboratories by any means. 2. All Govt, Private Laboratories should upload the details of COVID positive & negative cases in the ICMR Portal daily. 3.  The details of the Positive results should be submitted to the concerned District Surveillance Officers, COVID Surveillance officer, BBMP, Bengaluru & State Surveillance Unit, Bengaluru,” the notification stated.

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Karnataka waives institutional quarantine for Delhi, TN returnees

Coronavirus

The quarantine rules for people coming to the state from Maharashtra remained unchanged.

IANS

Karnataka has tweaked quarantine rules for inter-state returnees yet again, waiving off the 3-day institutional quarantine requirement for returnees from Delhi and Tamil Nadu, a government official said on Sunday. "Persons coming from states other than Maharashtra shall be placed in 14-day home quarantine," said N Manjunatha Prasad, Principal Secretary, Revenue Department. On June 15, Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar ordered a 3-day institutional quarantine, followed by 11-day home quarantine for people returning from Delhi and Tamil Nadu which now stands waived. However, quarantine requirements for Maharashtra returnees remains the same. "Persons coming from Maharashtra shall be placed in 7-day institutional quarantine, followed by 7-day home quarantine," said Prasad. Returnees from all other states will not have institutional quarantine but a fortnight's home quarantine. The senior officer said quarantine surveillance has been augmented through the application of technology and increase in the number of surveillance teams. Similarly, most of the conditions mandated in the June 15 order will continue to remain in force. The Karnataka government is also looking to increase surveillance and strictly impose home quarantine rules in the state. The move comes after a spike in cases in Bengaluru with 596 cases reported on Saturday, the highest increase in a single day. The state government also reported that there has been more than 1.3 lakh home quarantine violations in the last three months.  

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No private hospital in Karnataka can deny COVID-19 treatment: Govt order

Coronavirus

State Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey also clarified that no private medical college, hospital or similar establishment can deny treatment to COVID-19 patients.

IANS

Representational image

No private hospital or medical establishment in Karnataka can turn away or deny treatment to COVID-19 patients, said a top official on Sunday. "Private medical establishments in the state shall not deny, refuse or avoid treatment to patients with COVID-19 and COVID-19 like symptoms," ordered Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar. Bhaskar highlighted that the government took note of some private medical establishments in the state refusing treatment to COVID-19 patients. According to the chief secretary, such refusals amount to violating Section 11 of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act, 2017, which mandates that every private medical establishment should actively participate in the implementation of all national and state health programmes. "Private medical establishments shall actively participate in the implementation of all national and state health programmes in such manner as the state government may notify," said Bhaskar. The chief secretary said it is also the statutory duty of all private medical facilities to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and adhere to the Patient's Charter. Bhaskar invoked the Disaster Management Act 2005 and passed the orders in the capacity of the chairman of the State Executive Committee, Disaster Management, under the powers vested under Sections 24(f) and 24(I). He also directed the private hospitals to strictly comply with the provisions of Sections 11 and 11 A of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act 2017 and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). State Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey also clarified that no private medical college, hospital or similar establishment can deny treatment to COVID-19 patients. "Private medical colleges, hospitals and establishments cannot deny, refuse or avoid treating COVID-19 patients and persons with COVID-19 symptoms," said Pandey.

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States scramble to contain Covid spikes without enough workers to track outbreaks

The failure to stage the tracing workforce harks back to U.S. officials’ inability to build up adequate testing in the early days of the pandemic.

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Bengaluru cop dies after collapsing in his residence, tests positive for coronavirus

Coronavirus

The 57-year-old Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) is survived by his wife and daughter.

Prajwal Bhat

A 57-year-old Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) from Whitefield Police Station in Bengaluru died on Saturday night after he collapsed in the bathroom at his residence. He was immediately rushed to the hospital but he was declared dead on arrival.  Swabs taken from his body later tested positive for coronavirus, Whitefield Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) MN Anuchet said. "He was at his home when it happened. He had no known comorbidities," Anuchet said. The ASI is survived by his wife and daughter.  Police officials above the age of 55 have been stationed at their home since June 10. Health department officials are now tracing the contacts of the police officer.  Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 50 police officials in various police stations in Bengaluru have tested positive for the virus.  At least four deaths have been reported among the city's police, including a 59-year-old ASI attached to Wilson Garden Traffic police station and a 56-year-old police constable from Kalasipalyam police station.  The death was reported on a day 596 COVID-19 cases were reported in Bengaluru. This was a significant increase from the cases reported earlier in the week which was less than 200 per day.  The cases in Bengaluru made up around 65% of the 918 COVID-19 cases which were reported in Karnataka on Saturday.  The state government led by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa held a meeting on Saturday and decided to impose a lockdown on Sundays starting from July 5. In addition, a curfew will be in place in the state from 8 pm to 5 am starting Monday. Currently, a curfew is in place from 9 pm to 5 am everyday.  Bengaluru police is currently subjecting all arrested or detained persons to COVID-19 tests. In addition, the police have been tasked with strictly imposing fines against people who are not wearing masks and take action against people who are violating home quarantine rules. 

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