Bengaluru: Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda was at the centre of a controversy on Monday after he did not undergo quarantine on arrival from Delhi by a flight here as stipulated, but defended it, saying he came under the exempted category being in-charge of pharmaceuticals, an essential sector.

The Karnataka government came to his defence and said the Centre had issued orders exempting such people handling essential sectors from quarantine norms.

It also made public an addendum issued on May 23 to the standard operating procedure (SOP) for inter-state passengers, exempting Ministers of union and state government, also officers on official duty from quarantining.

The Minister, also Bengaluru North MP, drove off in an official car with out undergoing institutional quarantine as mandated by the Karnataka government for air travellers coming from high COVID-19 prevalence states after arriving here by a commercial airline flight, services of which resumed after two months.

It triggered a controversy with several people taking to social media accusing him of violating norms while others saying rules are only meant for citizens and not for VVIPS, including ministers.

The (SOP) issued by the government on May 22 mandates passengers coming from high COVID-19 prevalence states- Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh- to go for paid institutional quarantine for a period of seven days.

Defending himself, Gowda said he being a Minister in- charge of Department of Pharmaceuticals, which comes under essential supplies, he is under the exempted clause and hence has been allowed to proceed.

“…you need people to work for the control (of COVID-19) right? If you say no one should come out can you stop this? As a pharma minister I need to check production, supplies, and ensure it reaches last point, it is my responsibility,” the Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister told reporters.

“I come under the exemption clause and I have the exemptions…Arogya Setu App on my phone also shows I’m safe.

After checking every things we conduct ourselves in a responsible way. Modi (PM Narendra Modi) also wont spare us, if we move around according to our wish,” he added.

State Minister S Suresh Kumar, who is spokesperson for COVID-19 in Karnataka said, “He (Gowda) is exempted in his capacity as a minister handling pharma sector… orders have already been issued by the central government (in this regard).”

The May 23 addendum to the SOP, made public hours after the controversy involving Gowda, said: “The ministers of Union Government or state governments or officers on their official duty who are travelling across states will be exempted from requirements of quarantine…”

Gowda, who later held a meeting with state Ministers and officials, also said his body temperature was checked before he left the airport.

The Minister said he has not come in contact with any one and there were only 11 passengers in the flight.

The senior BJP leader also said though he could have opted for a special flight much before, he waited for domestic flights to resume as “I am not a person who misuses things.”

According to the SOP, at the end of the seven days, the passengers coming from these six states would be sent to home quarantine if they test negative for COVID-19.

Those coming from other states have been asked to follow 14 days of home quarantine.

In special cases involving businessmen coming for urgent work, they are permitted without quarantine if they produce negative test report of COVID-19 from ICMR approved laboratory obtained within two days ahead of their travel date.

Mangaluru: Private bus services in Dakshina Kannada will resume from June 1, with 50% of the buses plying back on the road after over two months of nationwide lockdown due to the spread of Corona Virus in the country.

Usually, about 325 city busses ply the Mangaluru roads from 6:00 am to 10 pm routing and connecting several parts in and around city. In an official statement by the bus owners’ association, it was informed that about 150 buses will start service. Meanwhile about 450 service busses, 70 contract carriages and 150 tourist busses will start services in the city from June 1.

A compatible mechanism will be planned out in next two days about how, where and how many number of busses will commence on particular roads, a top KSRTC official said.

DK DC Sindhu B Rupesh has asserted that a meeting of bus drivers and owners with the RTO officials will be organised and strict instructions and measures will be sent out to them to be followed.

Dakshina Kannada district recorded its fifth COVID-19 death on Thursday.

According to a statement issued by the Health and Family Welfare Department, an 80-year-old woman, a resident of Kulashekhara in Mangaluru, succumbed to the infection at the COVID Hospital. She is the second coronavirus victim in the limits of Mangaluru City Corporation. 

The woman, who was suffering from high blood pressure and stroke, had tested positive for coronavirus on April 26.

TOTAL INFECTIONS CROSSES 900 MARK

Bengaluru: Total number of COVID-19 infections in Karnataka has breached 900 mark, with the state reporting 42 new corona positive cases, the health department said on Tuesday.

Interestingly, Hassan that had not reported a single case so far, has confirmed five new infections.

“42 new positive cases have been reported from last evening to this noon…. Till date 904 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed. This includes 31 deaths and 426 discharges,” the department said in its bulletin.

Forty two new cases include- fifteen from Bagalkote, nine from Dharwad, five from Hassan, three from Bengaluru urban, two each from Dakshina Kannada, Yadgir and Bidar, and one each from Ballari, Chikkaballapura, Mandya and Kalaburagi.

Among the cases, 25 are with travel history to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, six are with travel history to Mumbai in Maharashtra, seven are contacts of patients already tested positive, two are from containment zone in Bidar, one with history of Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and the others contact is under tracing.

At least four out of these 42 cases are children.

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Kalaburagi: Forty-six persons who were in direct contact with the 76-year old man who died on Tuesday night due to co-morbidity and coronavirus infection have been placed under quarantine, district officials said on Friday.

Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner Sharat B said 31 of them have been categorised as “high risk” and the remaining 15 RPT 15 as “low risk”.

The high-risk persons are being shifted to ESIC hospital here.

Officials said four family members of the man have displayed flu symptoms and their swab samples have been sent for testing in Bengaluru.

A senior Union health ministry official said yesterday the death of the man, who had visited Saudi Arabia from January 29 to February 29, “is confirmed to be caused due to co-morbidity and has also tested positive for COVID-19”.

The administrator of Sunrise Hospital in Kalaburagi said the hospital is not equipped with isolation wards. The hospital could only give emergency treatment and they had done their duty, he added.

KALABURAGI: Family members of the 76-year-old man who died here on Tuesday night after being infected with the coronavirus allege that he was not given proper medical care.

The man’s son told Express that if doctors had treated him as soon as they were approached, he could have survived. He said family members took his father to a private hospital for treatment but they denied the patient admission. Later, they took him to Sunrise Hospital on 8th March but on the next day itself, they insisted that the patient be taken to Hyderabad.

“We were not ready to go to Hyderabad but were forced to do so. We took him there but no hospital was ready to admit him because he had returned from Dubai,” he said.

“We had to lie at Care Hospital at Hyderabad to get admission but within two hours they came to know of the issue and discharged our father,” he said.

He said that as there was no other alternative, they took him to the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Science (GIMS) Hospital where doctors declared that he was brought dead.

“We wandered in the ambulance from 4.00 pm on 9th March to 02.00 am on 10th March in Hyderabad but could not get treatment for our father in any of the hospitals,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, the administrator of Sunrise Hospital in Kalaburagi said the hospital is not equipped with isolation wards. The hospital could only give emergency treatment and they had done their duty, he added. The Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner said the family members of the deceased had taken the deceased to Hyderabad against medical advice.

“Immediately after coming to know that they have taken the patient to Hyderabad, we sent a team to bring the patient to GIMS and when he was brought to GIMS, the doctors declared him brought dead,” Deputy Commissioner Sharat B said.

Commissioner for Health and Family Welfare Services Pankaj Kumar Pandey urged the public not to believe in hearsay, but only in official communication.

BENGALURU: Social media platforms almost broke into frenzy after a news channel erroneously reported blanket emergency measures in the state on Wednesday. This came in wake of at least four positive cases of COVID-19 in Bengaluru.

Commissioner for Health and Family Welfare Services Pankaj Kumar Pandey urged the public not to believe in hearsay, but only in official communication.

“We have not declared of state emergency. Please do not believe in these kind of news. Offices, schools will stay open. If the situation demands (that they be closed), we will come out with an official communication,” said Pandey in a video that he put out on Wednesday to clear the air.

“On reports that Karnataka Government declared COVID-19 as state epidemic” and announced closure of schools and offices” I would like to say this is completely fake news and there is no truth in it. Any communication will come from the government in the press briefing that takes place every day,” he said.
He assured that no emergency has been declared and the offices schools and other institutions will stay open.

Bengaluru: A poet and a journalist have been arrested in connection with recital of a poem against CAA and NRC at a government sponsored function in Koppal district of Karnataka last month, police said on Wednesday.

The arrests were made based on a complaint from a BJP functionary alleging that Siraj Bisaralli, a poet had recited an anti-CAA poem at ‘Anegundi Utsava’ in Gangavathi town of Koppal district in January and Rajabaxi, editor of an online news portal uploaded it on social media.

Police had registered a case against them under section 505 of IPC (statements conducing to public mischief).

On Tuesday, Bisaralli and Rajabaxi surrendered before a court in that district, which rejected their bail plea and remanded them to police custody for investigation into the matter.

“Siraj had recited the poem and Rajabaxi had shared it on the social media. Based on a complaint by a BJP leader the case was registered under section 505 of the IPC.

They went absconding after that and surrendered before the court on Tuesday.

The duo sought an interim bail, which the public prosecutor objected to and sought police custody to conduct inquiry. The court granted sent Bisaralli and Rajabaxi to police custody till Wednesday afternoon.

“We may not seek further extension of their custody until some fresh evidences surface. We have seized their mobile phones to ascertain whom they had shared the details with,” police said.