Karnataka news live: State reports 1,065 new Covid cases, 28 deaths

The Karnataka government on Monday issued a notification for formation of district level Covid-19 Technical Expert Committees (TEC) for providing technical guidance to the district administrations. Signed by additional chief secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Jawaid Akhtar, TEC has been constituted based on the recommendation of the state Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) from the experiences of two waves of Covid pandemic and as the third wave is anticipated by the experts in October-November 2021. (PTI)

Mangaluru MLA U T Khader launched the product to the market and said Ullal Brand will be sold to farmers at Rs 10 per kg and it will be available in a pack of 10kgs.

Former minister and senior Congress leader B Ramanath Rai has called BJP national general secretary C T Ravi anti-national for making derogatory remarks against nation’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday received vice president M Venkaiah Naidu at Bengaluru airport. Bommai was accompanied by Karnataka governor Thaawarchand Gehlot and higher education minister of Karnataka CN Ashwath Narayana to welcome Naidu in the state. (ANI)

Hassan district minister K Gopalaiah said the Shiradi Ghat stretch will soon be opened for traffic. Speaking to reporters here on Sunday, he responded to MLA Preetham J Gowda’s statement against CM Basavaraj Bommai. “It is his personal statement. Former PM HD Deve Gowda is an elderly person who is respected in the state and country. Finally, it is the supreme power of the CM to decide to whose house he visits,” he said.

A rapid RT-PCR testing facility has been set up at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) to enable passengers bound for Gulf countries to get their testing done on time before boarding flights. The UAE government, while lifting restrictions on travellers from India, had made UAE residency visa, two doses of vaccination and RT-PCR negative certificate taken within 48 hours before travel mandatory for them to enter the country. (PTI)

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grand-nephew Chandra Kumar Bose met Karnataka Chief Minister Bsavaraj Bommai and held discussions on Sunday, on the platinum jubilee of the country's Independence. Bose along with his family met Bommai at his home office Krishna, the CMO said in a statement.

The entire rural part of Kolar district, comprising 156 GPs, have been declared ODF (open defecation free) Plus 1 under the Swachh Bharat Mission programme. NM Nagaraj, CEO, Kolar ZP, said the individual household toilet construction programme was taken up under the Swachh Bharat Mission. He said as all the 156 gram panchayats in the district have set up solid waste management units at their respective GPs, the rural area has been declared as ODF Plus

Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai is facing growing calls to lower sales tax on fuel after Tamil Nadu cut the levy on petrol by Rs 3 per litre. The high prices of petrol and diesel in Karnataka are hurting citizens and various sectors, and in a cascading effect, they have made commodities costlier. A number of people in districts near Tamil Nadu have now started making trips to that state to tank up, a trend that is being described as trade diversion. According to KM Basave Gowda, the president of the Akhila Karnataka Petroleum Traders, fuel outlets in districts such as Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar and Mandya are losing business to bunks in Tamil Nadu.

You could soon travel in KSRTC electric buses from Bengaluru to Mysuru, Madikeri, Virajpet, Chikkamagaluru, Davanagere and Shivamogga. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation identified these six inter-city routes to operate 50 AC electric buses under the second phase of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme. Officials said Hyderabad-based Olectra Greentech Limited (OGL) emerged the lowest bidder in KSRTC’s FAME-II tender. It will be a 12-year contract in which KSRTC will pay on a per km basis. Olectra reportedly quoted Rs 62/km, including electricity, in the tender and reduced it to Rs 55/km after negotiations with KSRTC officials. Read more

Citing a serosurvey conducted as part of paediatric Covaxin vaccine trials in Mysuru district and social, emotional, and nutritional disorders faced by children, experts are pushing for the resumption of on-campus classes in schools. The government ordered schools shut in March last year as a preventive measure against the pandemic and regular classes for lower grades have not been conducted since. Dr Pradeep N, associate professor, department of paediatrics, Mysuru Medical College and Research Institute, said the sero-surveillance study has shown that more than 50% of children have already been infected with the virus. Read more

In an example of just how pervasive the threat of Covid can be, especially if one lowers one’s guard, 25 people who attended the final rites of a person in Thimmanakoppalu village under Doddabyadarahalli gram panchayat limits in Pandavapura taluk, Mandya district, have tested positive. Following the cluster outbreak, officials have sealed down the village. Sources say, 11 days ago, locals had gathered in large numbers for the final rites of a person who had died. When a few people who attended the final rites developed Covid-19 symptoms three days ago, they and many others in the village took the Covid. Now, 25 have tested positive.

Karnataka on Sunday reported 1,431 fresh Covid-19 cases, including 305 in Bengaluru. There were 21 new deaths due to the infection in the state, while three of them were in the state capital. With more than 1.5 lakh tests conducted in the last 24 hours, the day’s test positivity rate was slightly over 0.9%. The day’s case fatality rate was less than 1.5%. Yadgir was the only district without a single Covid case on the day, while 12 other districts reported infections in single digits. Eleven districts reported no deaths. Dakshina Kannada reported the highest number of deaths (4) as well as infections, 311. Till 3.30pm on Sunday, more than 1.1 lakh people were vaccinated against Covid-19, of which 30,000 were second doses.