Karnataka news live: Covid positivity rate dips below 1% in state

Karnataka High Court will hear the sex CD case against former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi from Tuesday. The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing into the case, had submitted a detailed report to the High Court on June 19. The Divisional Bench headed by Chief Justice A.S. Oka is scheduled to take up the issue on Tuesday afternoon. The bench is expected to take important decisions on allegations by the complainant on the investigation agency and the ruling BJP government. And, further, take up the issue of quashing the complaint against Ramesh Jarkiholi.

For the first time since the pandemics second wave began in April, Covid positivity rate in Karnataka dipped below 1 per cent in a day, while case fatality rate was above 3 per cent, said the state health bulletin on Monday. "Positivity rate declined to 0.94 per cent on Sunday from 1.09 per cent on Saturday, while case fatality rate rose to 3.09 per cent from 2.10 per cent during the weekend," said the bulletin. Positivity rate is the percentage of people who test positive for being infected by Coronavirus.

Chief minister BS Yediyurappa reportedly plans to host a lunch for senior officials and his secretariat staff on July 25, a day before a meeting of the BJP legislature party. This has fuelled further speculation in political circles that his time in office may be winding down, a suggestion his close aides reject. According to an official in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Yediyurappa also intends to organise a lunch for BJP MLAs after the meeting, followed by a photo session in the Vidhana Soudha. A few days before that, on July 23 or 24, he is expected to visit his home district, Shivamogga, to inaugurate a slew of projects.

Nearly 8.5 lakh students turned up for the SSLC exam on Monday, a better turnout than last year. Monday’s was the first of two papers with the second — on languages — scheduled for Thursday. The first paper on core subjects saw 99.6% of the nearly 8.8 lakh eligible students appearing for the examination as opposed to last year’s 98.4%. S Suresh Kumar, primary and secondary education minister, said the results will be announced on August 10 or 11.

The Karnataka government’s decision to allow cinema halls and theatres to operate from Monday with 50% occupancy drew lukewarm response from the industry. On Day 1 of Unlock 4.0, most theatres in the city remained closed. Reason: Neither were theatre owners prepared to screen movies, nor were there any new releases. Theatre owners said that producers, especially those making big-budget films, are showing no interest in releasing their movies till 100% occupancy is allowed.

The health and family welfare department has launched a study on the vaccination status of those who died of Covid-19 from March 1 this year. Karnataka recorded 23,820 Covid deaths since March 1 till date, the state’s daily Covid bulletins show. The pan-Karnataka study will factor in 85 parameters including vaccine type, number of doses taken, comorbidities suffered, date of onset of symptoms and the date of admission among others.

Mynvax, a vaccine technology startup, on Monday said it has signed definitive agreements to raise $4.2 million — around Rs 31 crore — in its Series A round of financing led by Accel. The startup, incubated by Society for Innovation and Development (SID) at Indian Institute of Science, had committed significant internal resources towards developing new vaccines against Covid-19 and said the funds will be used to further clinical development of its formulations.

A study conducted by a leading private hospital in Bengaluru has found that the mortality rate among Covid-19 patients was much higher among people who did not take even one dose of the vaccine as against those who did. While the rate was 18.7% among non-vaccinated individuals, it was 13.5% among those who took at least one dose of either Covishield or Covaxin. Significantly, there was no death among patients who had received both doses of the vaccine.