Karnataka Covid news live: Zilla panchayat and taluq panchayat elections postponed

In a span of a mere week (from April 10 to April 17), Belagavi district, where bypolls to a Lok Sabha and assembly seat were held on Saturday, reported 780 new cases, 497 or 64% of them from Belagavi city alone.

With hospitals reporting a shortage of Remdesivir, Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths conducted a drive in Bengaluru on Saturday and arrested three men who were allegedly hoarding the antiviral drug and selling a 100mg vial at Rs 10,500. The marked price ranges between Rs 2,800 and Rs 5,400 per vial depending on the manufacturer. The government had capped the price at Rs 899-3,490 last week. The accused, Rajesh and Shakeeb, who run Gurushree Medicals in Suddaguntepalya and Sohail from Madiwala, were not authorised to store Remdesivir.

With increasing Covid-19 cases, Mangaluru police brass have given nearly 35 pregnant and lactating women police the option of working from home till April-end. N Shashi Kumar, Mangaluru city police commissioner, said women in late stages of pregnancy and lactating mothers are exempted from coming to office or station. They can work from home till the end of the month, by when a decision will be taken to extend the facility depending on circumstances.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta on Sunday issued on-the-spot notices to five major hospitals for not complying with the government’s 50% bed reservation directive.

In the wake of multiple hospitals reporting shortage in medical oxygen, the Karnataka government on Sunday set up a special war room that will work round the clock to ensure supply of oxygen to hospitals. The war room will function out of the drug controller’s office in Bengaluru.

Karnataka has reported more deaths in less than three weeks this month than it did in the first three months of the year together, pushing the total deaths in 2021 beyond 1,000. While 18 days in April saw Covid-19 claim 784 lives, the state had 477 Covid fatalities in January, February and March 2021 cumulatively.

Setting multiple single-day records, Karnataka posted 19,067 fresh cases of Covid-19 and Bengaluru accounting for 12,793 of them on Sunday, underlining the need for strengthening the hospital infrastructure in the state. While patients are struggling to get beds and hospitals.