Bengaluru sees 2967 new COVID-19 cases, over 400 reported in city’s south zone

Coronavirus

Karnataka reported a total of 9,058 coronavirus cases on Tuesday.

TNM Staff

Bengaluru on Tuesday reported 2,967 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. Over 400 patients were from the city’s south zone. East zone reported the second highest number of cases, followed by west zone. This is a departure from the dominant trend in the past weeks where the west zone had been reporting a higher number of daily cases. The number of recoveries was also lower on Tuesday with only 1,137 discharges in the single day. Most of these were in the west zone, followed by east zone and Mahadevapura respectively. Most of the new patients were men between 30 and 39 years of age, followed by men in the 20 to 20 age group and then by men between 40-49 age group. The women in the corresponding age groups reported the next highest number of coronavirus cases. Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in Bengaluru, men between 30-39 have accounted for a majority of the coronavirus positive cases. In women, that age group is the 20-29 one.   Recoveries on Tuesday were highest among men in the 40 to 49 age group, followed by women in the 30 to 39 age group. A majority of the 40 people who succumbed to COVID-19 on Tuesday were men over 70 years old. Wednesday marks the third day that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has not provided an update on the number of containment zones in the city. The number, per the last update, remains at 15,723 active containment zones (39%), out of a total of 40,563. The positivity rate in the city is at 14.8%; the rate of recovery from COVID-19 is at 69.03% and the active rate is 29.4%. Overall, Karnataka reported 9,058 COVID-19 cases and 5,159 COVID-19 recoveries on Tuesday. The total number of active cases in the state is 90,999. Bengaluru accounts for 38,906 of these, the highest in the state. It also makes up for 2,005 of the 5,837 total casualties due to COVID-19 in the state. 

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Karnataka mulls online sale of liquor, sets up team of officials

Liquor

The team of officials will draw up a report and consult with Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa before taking a final decision.

TNM Staff

The Karnataka government has constituted a team of officials to study the pros and cons of online liquor sale, and a decision will be taken in this regard based on its report, State Excise Minister H Nagesh said on Tuesday. He said the team will study the success rate of online sale in the states where it has been implemented. "Regarding online liquor sale we have constituted a team of senior officials to visit and study wherever it is implemented and look into pros and cons. Whether it (online sale) is going on successfully, upto the mark and is it satisfactory," Nagesh said. Speaking to reporters, Nagesh said the government will not take any hasty decision in this regard and all necessary procedures and consultation will be followed before taking a final call. "After looking into the pros and cons and consulting the Chief Minister (BS Yediyurappa), we will take a decision," he said. The Minister also noted that with online sale there will be additional service charge on the consumers, which the people will have to agree to. "There is also opposition to it from the wine merchants association, their consent is also required and we will have to talk to them," he added. This is not a new idea in Bengaluru and until September 2018, services like Dunzo and HipBar delivered alcohol to the city's residents. A part of Dunzo's service (as a task running app which was delivered from government-licensed vendors) was delivering alcohol while it was the mainstay of HipBar. But the applications were shut down after the Excise Department in the state said there was no license for the online delivery of liquor. While different companies have tried without much success for the home delivery of alcohol, Zomato is now pushing to deliver alcohol, reported Reuters. According to reports, several states including Kerala and Maharashtra, have already launched the online delivery of liquor. With easing of restrictions under Unlock 4, the Karnataka government has allowed bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants in the state to serve liquor with 50 percent of their seating capacity from Tuesday. The state government had in May allowed sale of liquor through MRP outlets. This was followed by permission for bars, microbreweries, pubs and others to clear out their stocks, but in-house service was not allowed. According to Excise Department's data, the excise revenue at the end of August is Rs 7,580 crore, lower than the Rs 9,131 crore reported during the corresponding period last year. With inputs from PTI

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'Thanks to UP police for not killing me in an encounter': Dr Kafeel Khan after release

Law

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday quashed Dr.Khan's detention under the National Security Act and ordered his immediate release.

TNM Staff

Dr Kafeel Khan, PTI

Following an order of the Allahabad High Court, Dr Kafeel Khan was released from Mathura jail late on Tuesday night, his lawyer said. "Uttar Pradesh govt kept me in jail for 8 months under a fictitious case and did not give me food for 5 days. I thank the UP STF who brought me from Mumbai to Mathura and did not kill me in an encounter. I thank them," Dr. Kafeel said upon his release. "They kept me in jail without food, I would like to thanks UP STF for not killing me in encounter" ~ Dr Kafeel Khan #drkafeelkhan pic.twitter.com/0QUsbPFTbe — Md Asif Khan‏‎‎‎‎‎‎ (@imMAK02) September 1, 2020 The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday quashed Khan's detention under the National Security Act and ordered his immediate release. "Mathura jail administration informed at around 11.00 pm that Dr Kafeel will be released, and at around midnight, he was released," Khan's lawyer Irfan Ghazi said. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh, passed the order on a petition filed by Khan's mother Nuzhat Parveen. The petition alleged that Khan was granted bail in February by a competent court and he was supposed to be released on bail. However, he was not released for four days and the NSA was subsequently invoked against him. Hence, his detention was illegal, the petition argued. Khan was in jail since January after he delivered a speech at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests in December last year. The court said that prima facie, the speech did not disclose any efforts to promote hatred or violence. "It also nowhere threatens peace and tranquillity of the city of Aligarh. The address gives a call for national integrity and unity among the citizens. The speech also deprecates any kind of violence. It appears that the District Magistrate had selective reading and selective mention for few phrases from the speech ignoring its true intent,” the court stated. Read: ‘His speech called for integrity, not violence’: HC orders Dr Kafeel Khan’s release

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Bengaluru residents return to bars, pubs for first time since March amid restrictions

Liquor

While crowd favourites like Bob's Bar and Toit were open with restrictions, others like Pecos continued to remain closed.

Prajwal Bhat

Toit Brewpub, Bengaluru

Pubgoers in Bengaluru returned to their favourite watering holes for the first time in five months after bars and pubs across the city were reopened to serve liquor under Unlock 4. Bars and pubs in the city were closed on March 22 following the Janata Curfew announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  "We are following the standard operating procedures laid down by the government. We have spaced out our tables and removed around 8 tables from the ground floor area. Customers have to go through a temperature check while entering the bar and they have to wear masks and maintain distancing. Empty tables are sanitised every time a customer leaves," Jagdish, manager of the popular Bob's Bar in Indiranagar told TNM. The guidelines allow bars and pubs to serve 50% of customers at a time in their premises as per their seating capacity so as to ensure 6-feet physical distancing is maintained. A fairly high number of people thronged to Bob's Bar on Tuesday night and managing the crowd that turns up at bars was an issue. The seating area on the ground floor was almost full. "We will be making changes to our system to ensure that the crowd is 50%," Jagdish said.  While some popular bars like Bob's, Toit and Sarathi in Indiranagar were open, others like Pecos, Three Dots and a Dash, and Barebones in the same area remained closed on Tuesday night. Excise officials told TNM around 600 bars and pubs reopened on Tuesday.  "This is not the usual crowd we are used to on a Tuesday night, but we have begun serving customers following the restrictions laid down. This is also a working day so it is too early to tell whether the demand is lesser," Hamesh Kumar, manager at Toit Bar told TNM. The waiters have to sanitise the area and tables after one set of customers leave and before the other customers occupy them. "As stipulated in the SOP, the air-conditioning in all bars and pubs has been set on 24-30 degrees Celsius. Orders are placed contactless and payment is through digital mode to avoid touching any surface or object," state federation of wine merchants' association Govindraj Hegde said. Though the state government reopened liquor sale through retail outlets since May 4 and allowed bars and pubs to sell their stock piled up due to lockdown since Unlock 1 began on June 8, serving of drinks was not allowed till September 1. Restaurants are also allowed to serve liquor along with food as per guidelines. According to state excise minister H Nagesh, the state government has suffered an estimated Rs 1,435 crore loss due to restricted sales and ban on serving liquor in bars, restaurants and pubs. The excise department has set a revenue target for this fiscal (2020-21) of Rs 22,700 crore. With inputs from IANS

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Third virus vaccine reaches major hurdle: Final U.S. testing

AstraZeneca announced Monday its vaccine candidate has entered the final testing stage in the U.S.

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Online meeting to suggest changes to Bengaluru’s Peripheral Ring Road postponed

Civic

A BDA official said that the meeting has been postponed as per the order of state Forest Minister Anand Singh.

TNM Staff

Image of meet on PRR on Aug 28

The contentious virtual conference for Benaglureans to comment and suggest changes to the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) Project scheduled to be held on Thursday has been postponed.  The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has said that it is now scheduled to be held on  September 23. The project is facing opposition from the public as it will uproot 33,800 trees and affect multiple water bodies. The PRR involves laying 65.5 kilometres of an eight-lane road network between Tumakuru Road on the west and Hosur Road on the east via Ballari Road and Old Madras Road. A BDA official said that the meeting has been postponed as per the order of state Forest Minister Anand Singh. The BDA official said the web meeting on Zoom can be accessed using the previous details. [Meeting ID: 850 1729 9310, Passcode-bpe2020].  However, TNM could not reach Anand Singh or any official in the BDA for clarity on why the meeting was postponed. On August 18, a physical meeting was held for the public discussion, but there had been low attendance due to confusion over its date, despite huge public interest around the project. While Anand SIngh had asked the meeting to be cancelled the previous evening, the Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner, officials of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and the BDA went ahead with the meeting. The minister’s decision had come following requests by activists who demanded that the public consultation process be postponed given the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Bengaluru. There is also wide opposition to the meeting being held online as there are constraints on how many people can join the meeting virtually, as well as issues regarding access to technology.  Further, a section of Bengaluru residents, led by Citizens for Bengaluru, have demanded that the BDA first make the detailed project report public, so minute details can be discussed.

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Bengaluru airport sees 1.4 million domestic passengers after operations resume

Aviation

On Sept. 1, the airport celebrated 100 days of successful operations, after air travel was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

TNM Staff

Bengaluru’s international airport celebrated 100 days of successful operations on September 1, since the resumption of domestic air travel in India. The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) permitted operations to resume starting from May 25 onwards, after a lockdown of two months induced by COVID-19.  In a span of 100 days, Kempegowda International Airport welcomed 1.4 million domestic passengers, with 15,658 air traffic movements (ATM). In comparison to the previous month, July 2020, ATMs saw a growth of 39% and there was a growth of over 47% in passenger traffic in August 2020. In the coming days and months, these numbers are expected to increase due to the relaxation of state regulations as well as additional capacity by airlines.  Bengaluru airport has reconnected with 49 of 58 domestic cities since operations have resumed, achieving 84% of the pre-COVID-19 network. The top destination is Kolkata, with 13% of domestic passengers travelling to and from Bengaluru’s airport. Kolkata is followed by Delhi at 11% and Patna at 6%.  The eastern and north-eastern regions of India have recorded the highest passenger movements at 33.7%. It is closely followed by South India at 30.9%.  The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India (GoI) and Government of Karnataka (GoK) has helped in adapting to the new environment by supporting the reinstatement and alignment between airlines. Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL) and other stakeholders like MoHFW and concessionaires have also extended their help in the process.  The airport launched contactless processing of passengers, including minimising touchpoints and strict sanitation measures, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The air conditioning temperature was also increased from 23 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius to minimise transmission of the virus. 

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