GENRE: LN

Lockdown extended On Thursday, the Karnataka government announced extending the lockdown across the State by a week, from June 7 to June 14. This is in accordance with the Technical Advisory Committee's recommendation that the lockdown should be continued till the case positivity rate drops to 5%. The CPR presently is around 11%. On Thursday, Bengaluru Urban recorded 3,533 new cases of COVID, 7,672 discharges and 347 deaths. The State government also spelt out a second relief package of Rs 323 crore to give ASHA, Anganwadi workers, weavers, film and TV industry workers, Muzrai temple priests, Maulvis and fishermen Rs…

Testing sewage to detect clusters Karnataka will begin testing sewage water to identify potential coronavirus clusters and mutant variants of the virus. The surveillance teams which will be in 45 wards, will cover over 75% of 90 lakh residents by generating over 90 data points per week, the Urban Development Department reportedly revealed. This could be a cost-effective early warning system to assess the increase in cases before the number of official cases actually go up. Officials hope it will avoid city-wide lockdowns by focusing on micro-containment zones. Samples would be pulled from 45 wards every day for the next…

Karnataka’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), the scientific adviser to the government on COVID management, had predicted a second wave in January and February of 2021. While the TAC’s prediction was off by a couple of months--in UK and USA, the second wave had wreaked havoc in the final months of 2020--they did forewarn the State government that a faster spreading and more debilitating second wave of the pandemic was just waiting to happen. And it did. In the end April 2021, the State was clocking approximately 50,000 cases per day with capital Bengaluru alone averaging 20,000 cases per day.    The…

Highest mortality among big cities Bengaluru recorded the highest 28-day COVID mortality with a Moving Growth Rate (MGR) of 82% during the lockdown from April 14 to May 12, according to a study by Jeevan Rakshe, conducted with technical support from the Public Health Foundation of India. The city accounted for 24% of the 17,000 deaths recorded in the six biggest Indian cities. Bengaluru was only behind Delhi, which recorded over 50% of the deaths. In terms of MGR, the national capital was second with 76%. Hence, the doubling period for death numbers is shorter than other mega cities. In…

Singara Chennai. The capital of Tamil Nadu and a hub of automobile and electronic hardware industries. A city that is often labelled as India’s health capital with several multi speciality government and private hospitals. And yet, there remains a lot to be done to fulfill the expectations and aspirations of its citizens. The recent elections saw the DMK come to power in the state, clinching every seat in the city. In its earlier stints, the DMK government had been behind several projects that are key landmarks in the city today: the multi-level flyover at Kathipara, the largest cloverleaf flyover in Asia,…

With Bengaluru becoming the most traffic-congested city in the world in 2020, mass transit is the key ingredient for a sustainable, low carbon footprint future and the only solution to decongest Bengaluru's roads. However, the perception that cost effective transport options are primarily for use by the economically weaker section of the society, is a big worry.  The extensive bus network of Bengaluru, with a fleet size of over 6775 buses, is the largest in India, and among the 20 largest in the world. Why then is it not leveraged as a solution to its traffic congestion? Even with the…

Since last week, Bengalureans have been bombarded with news that BBMP's COVID bed allocation software has major glitches, leading to corruption in allotment. Even before MP Tejasvi Surya came out with allegations of corruption, the BBMP had appointed a three-member committee on May 3, to study how the bed allotment system can be made "transparent and robust". The committee comprised of: V Ponnuraj, nodal officer for the state COVID war roomKumar Pushkar, nodal officer for CHBMS (Central Hospital Bed Management System)Vipin Singh, nodal officer for 1912 helpline The committee submitted its report to BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta on May…

A report by Healthy Energy Initiative — India (an initiative that works in healthcare and climate change spaces) reveals that two Thermal Power Plants (TPPs) in the Ennore thermal cluster in Tamil Nadu were found violating the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) prescribed norms up to 53% of the total operational time in two years, between 2019-2020.  In March 2021, just as the second wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic was surging in India, the MOEFCC issued a notification extending the deadline to meet the 2015 emission norms for thermal power plants until 2024. Zero action to meet…

Several civil society organisations and individuals on Thursday, called upon the Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to act against four elected representatives of the Bharatiya Janata Party who, in the name of exposing a scam in BBMP's bed-allocation for COVID patients, had targeted Muslims working in the relief effort. The demanded that Bengaluru South Member of Parliament Tejasvi Surya, Basavanagudi MLA Ravi Subramanya, Chickpet MLA Uday Garudachar and Bommanahalli MLA Satish Reddy be made to apologise for their actions and compensate Rs 50,000 to each of the targeted 16 muslim employees of a private firm drafted by the BBMP in…

In the view of the rapidly rising COVID cases and deaths in entire families, the State government and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have, over the last two days, ordered measures to deal with emergency requirements such as setting up of ICU beds, support for orphaned children, monitoring oxygen supply and modifying home-isolation protocols. While the direction of oxygen monitoring and supply came after the tragedy at the Chamarajanagar district hospital, where 23 COVID patients succumbed due to lack of oxygen, the government also appointed IAS officers to take care of children orphaned due to the pandemic. A nodal…