In light of the increase in Covid-19 cases in Mumbai, the BMC on Friday decided to conduct random rapid antigen tests at all crowded public places such as malls, markets, shopping complexes, bus stations and railway stations(Express Photo: Prashant Nadkar)Karnataka Bengaluru Coronavirus News Live Updates: As many as 932 more people contracted coronavirus infection in Karnataka on Monday, while 429 others recovered from the infection. Of these, 550 new cases and 198 discharges were reported from Bengaluru alone.
Meanwhile, the positivity rate rose to 1.49 per cent while the number of active cases further rose to 8860 (6454 in Bengaluru).
At the same time, 62,358 samples were tested (including 2559 Rapid Antigen Detection Tests) across the state. Other districts that reported the most cases on March 15 were Dakshina Kanada (65), Mysuru (46), Kalaburagi (43), and Tumkur (40).
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The Central Crime Branch of the Bengaluru City Police Tuesday busted a fake telephone exchange and arrested a person who was allegedly running the same.
According to Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil, the arrested person has been identified as Asraf Unachiravittal, a resident of Kozhikode in Kerala. “The accused had been running an illegal telephone exchange in Bengaluru and was converting foreign calls to local calls. He was running a tea shop to cover up his crime and was operating the telephone exchange in a house near the shop,” he said.
A case has been registered at Soladevanhalli police station and an investigation is underway, CCB sleuths confirmed.
Bypolls to two assembly constituencies — Basavakalyan and Maski — and Belgaum Lok Sabha constituency will be held on April 17, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday. The schedule further indicated that counting will take place on May 2, the same day as the results of the state elections in West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry.
While by election was necessitated in Belgaum following the death of former Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi, the same is being held in Basavakalyan (Bidar) to find a successor to Congress MLA B Narayan Rao. Both leaders had succumbed to Covid-19 in September last year.
At the same time, Maski in Raichur has had no representation in the Assembly since Pratapgouda Patil switched loyalty to the Bharatiya Janata Party from the Indian National Congress in 2019.
In the wake of a surge in Covid-19 cases in Karnataka, Health and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar Tuesday directed officials to enhance contact tracing and testing.
“Primary health centres are instructed to conduct at least 100 tests per day and 500 tests per day is the target for general hospitals. At least 20 primary and secondary contacts have to be traced for every infected person,” Sudhakar instructed.
He added that vaccination will also be increased, as per the inputs received from the CM’s meet with experts. “We are giving large advertisements from today to create awareness. Vaccination will be increased further. 15 lakh people have been vaccinated so far,” he said.
Days after Hithesha Chandranee, a makeup artist and beauty influencer, accused a Zomato delivery agent of assaulting her, the man, identified as Kamraj, has filed a counter complaint with the Electronic City police in Bengaluru on Monday.
According to a senior police official, a case has been registered against Chandranee under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 355 (assault or criminal force with intent to dishonour person, otherwise than on grave provocation), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Chandranee, 31, is a resident of Electronic city Phase-1. Kamaraj, who stays in Chennakeshava Nagar area of the city, was working as a delivery boy for Zomato. On March 9, in a video posted on Instagram, Hitesha Chandranee claimed she was “hit” and “left bleeding” by Kamaraj, who “ran off” after the incident. “So guys, my Zomato order was late and I was talking to the customer care executive, and meanwhile, the delivery person just did this,” she had said.
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The people of South Kodagu organised a protest against the forest department on Monday over its failure to catch or kill the tiger that had killed three people 24 days ago.
The forest department had begun the operation to capture the elusive tiger but has not been able to track it down. They had brought in two expert sharpshooters, but officials said that they have not been able to find the big cat yet. Last week, the Karnataka government had given shoot-at-sight orders to the forest department for the tiger.
People staying in Bellur, Thavalageri, T. Shettigeri, Nemmale and Srimangala — the epicentre of such tiger attacks — are hesitant to come out of their homes and are not going to coffee plantations because of this fear.
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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted rain in Kodagu district this evening.
According to their forecast issued at 3.30 pm, “thunderstorm accompanied with lightning, light to moderate spells of rains/thundershowers” are likely in Kodagu during the next three hours.
Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar has urged the education department to initiate action against schools in the state holding offline classes for children in classes 1 to 5.
“The state government had allowed schools to conduct physical classes for only students from class 6 and above, as per recommendations of the Covid-19 technical advisory committee. It has been reported in the media that many schools across the state have been conducting offline classes for classes below 6,” Suresh Kumar said.
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A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Bengaluru police investigating the alleged attempt to blackmail former state minister Ramesh Jarkiholi with a sex CD purportedly featuring the minister is looking at the role of an organised gang of more than seven people in creating and distributing the CD, according to police sources.
Investigations have revealed that the group held a joint meeting in Bengaluru a day before the CD was released in public, sources said.
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With Karnataka witnessing an uptick in the number of fresh Covid-19 cases since the beginning of March, the state government Monday decided to step up checks for mandatory negative RT-PCR report for people entering the state from neighbouring Maharashtra and Kerala.
After a meeting with ministers and top officials in Bengaluru, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said, “We have decided to enhance checks for RT-PCR negative test reports at Maharashtra and Kerala borders. All deputy commissioners have been instructed to enforce the same from Tuesday itself.”
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The Bengaluru City Police has laid a memorial stone at the city’s first traffic signal, celebrating nearly six decades since it began working.
The signal at the busy NR junction was installed in 1963, when C Chandy was Commissioner of Police and B N Garudachar was Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic).
With 932 more people contracting coronavirus infection on Monday, the state lodged over 900 cases for the third consecutive day. With this, the number of active cases further rose to 8860 (6454 in Bengaluru).
Meanwhile, the positivity rate rose to 1.49 per cent with Bengaluru reporting most new cases (550) followed by Dakshina Kanada (65), Mysuru (46), Kalaburagi (43), and Tumkur (40). At the same time, 62,358 samples were tested (including 2559 Rapid Antigen Detection Tests) across the state.
With Covid-19 cases rising across the state, including in the capital city, the Karnataka government Monday decided to postpone the 13th edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) indefinitely.
“In pursuance of the observations issued by the Health and Family Welfare services department, the government of Karnataka has ordered the postponement of the 13th edition of BIFFes indefinitely,” the organisers stated.
The international event was scheduled to be held from March 24 to 31 and preparations were underway. The Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy had announced last month that the event will be held in 11 screens at PVR in Orion Mall in the city.
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