Covid-19 Daily Update - May 7

Karnataka records 12 new cases and the state government starts trains for migrant workers again. The first two of the 64 repatriation flights land in India today and Nitin busts some fake news. All this on the daily update with Akhil Kadidal, Suraksha Pinnu and Nitin Krishna.

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Hello. This the daily Covid update from Deccan Herald.
On the bulletin today:
Karnataka reports 12 new cases of Covid-19…the Karnataka state government restarts trains for migrant workers, the state gears up to receive its first repatriation flight on May 8th...
And Nitin joins us to take some fake news apart. But first, a look at the national numbers.

As the number of positive cases continue to rise sharply every day, the Centre has asked states to step up random testing among persons suffering from severe respiratory illness in unaffected districts as part of surveillance. As we go into this recording...
More than 38,000 people are active carriers of the virus.
Just over 15,000 patients have recovered since they were first tested and...The country has registered 1840 covid-related deaths so far. More than 56,000 cases have been reported from the country since January this year.
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The Indian Council of Medical Research has tested more than 13 lakh samples for the virus from across the country.
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Maharashtra has reported more than 1000 new cases for the second consecutive day and has more than 14,000 active cases in the state.

Tamil Nadu has reported 580 new cases today. The number of active cases in the state now stands at 3825. More than 1000 cases are from the Koyambedu Market Complex.

Rajasthan has 160 new cases, and has more than 1500 active cases. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has issued an order stating that all the inter-state boundaries of the state will be sealed with immediate effect to prevent the entry of unauthorized persons.

40 BSF men have tested positive in the North-East of Tripura over the past few days. The state which had seen complete recovery of all its patients, is back in the red zone, and has a total of 62 active cases now.
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Karnataka has reported 12 new cases today. Till date, 705 cases have been reported in the state, out of which 308 are still active. 6 patients are in ICU and 366 have been discharged so far. There has been one death in the state today and 30 overall.
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Out of 12 new cases in the state, 3 are from Davanagere, 3 from Kalaburgi and 3 are from Badami in Bagalakote. All the cases from Bagalkote are direct contacts of Patient 607. The three cases from Kalaburgi are direct contacts of Patient 641 and 642. Two cases from Davanagere have exhibited Influence-Like-Illness and one has SARI.
The lone case from Hirebagewadi in Belagavi is a direct contact of Patient 364. Patient 701 from Bengaluru and Patient 705 from Dharwada have both exhibited Influence-Like-Illness
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Patient 694, a 55-year-old woman from Davanagere passed away today. She had a history of hypertension and diabetes and was admitted with the complaint of SARI.
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Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai has said that Lockdown 3.0 need not continue beyond May 17 if people cooperate and make it a success. For the latest details on this, log on to deccanherald.com
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In some non-Covid news, a chemical leak, identified as Styrene, from LG polymers Ltd, near Vishakhapatnam early this morning, has impacted villages in a five-km radius, leaving eleven people dead. Many others are suffering from breathlessness and other problems. The director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rundeep Guley-riya has said that the gas is harmful to human beings but not fatal. There is neither an antidote nor a definite medicine for reversing the effects of styrene and the treatment mainly remains supportive. The effect of this leak on Covid-19 patients in the city remains to be seen.
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The gas leak has affected movement of trains from the Simhachalam North railway station in Vizag, including at least nine Shramik Special trains. The station is close to the site of the leak. Trains crossing the railway station stopped for more than 3 hours in the morning.
Some of the trains that were affected are the Abu Road to Visakhpatnam migrant special, Dar-bhanga to Thrissur, Hatiya to Eranakulam and Pala-kkad to Jagan-nath-pur.

Some trains have also been diverted via Vijaya-wada Railway station and Bal-har-shah Railway Station.
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Moving on, the first two repatriation flights carrying Indian citizens stranded abroad are expected to land today. One flight from Abu Dhabi will land in Kochi and the other from Dubai is scheduled to arrive in Calicut. The Vande Bharat mission will see more than 14,000 Indians returning from 12 countries. Air India plans to operate 64 repatriation flights, and will charge the passengers. Priority will be given to students and those who have had a death or a medical emergency in their family.
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All Indian citizens being repatriated from the United Arab Emirates will be tested for Covid-19...and only the ones who are negative for the infection will be allowed to board the repatriation flights. Kerala Chief Minister had expressed concern about receiving travellers who are not tested; the state expects to receive large numbers from the UAE.
However, tests will not be conducted for those coming from Saudi Arabia or other countries. After a medical screening at the airport, they will be quarantined for 14 days.

Bengaluru is gearing up to receive 650 passengers from Singapore, UK and the USA between May 8th and 13th. Suraksha has all the details regarding the protocols in place, a little later in the bulletin.
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Moving on, a shocking video from a municipal hospital in Mumbai which shows dead bodies kept in Covid treatment wards, along with those undergoing treatment, has gone viral.
The video was shot secretly at the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital at Sion, one of the biggest civic hospitals of Mumbai.
The Brihan-mumbai Municipal Corporation has said that it has set up a committee to verify the video. The dean of the hospital has said that in many cases relatives are not available and there has been a deliberate delay in accepting the bodies. Sources have pointed to the fact that mortuaries of civic hospitals are filled to capacity.
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In other news, the Joint Entrance Examination -Advanced, for admission to IITs will be conducted on August 23rd, according to the HRD Ministry.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the JEE-Mains would be held from July 18th to July 23rd.
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In news from Karnataka...After facing flak for cancelling trains for migrant workers, the Karnataka government has written to 9 states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, seeking their coordination in receiving the labourers. The first train is likely to depart to Bihar on Friday afternoon. The trains, however, will not be enough to carry more than 2.3 lakh workers who have registered in the Seva Sindhu web portal seeking inter-state transport services.
Even the receiving states do not seem to be ready for the rush of workers.
For instance, while Karnataka had planned to send 16 trains - two trains per day for eight days - to Bihar officials from Bihar have agreed to receive one train per day.
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Karnataka has revised its standard operating procedure for receiving international passengers who will soon arrive on repatriation flights. The first group of passengers will arrive in the state on May 8. The number of categories has been reduced to two from three. Category A includes passengers symptomatic on arrival while Category B passengers are those asymptomatic on arrival.

As per the revised SOP, there will be three tests: one on arrival, second in the next 5 to 7 days and the last on the 12th day. This will ensure definite identification of positive cases even if they are asymptomatic and their subsequent treatment. The passenger will be released on the seventh day, if tested negative. But, they will have to be under strict home quarantine for another seven days and they will be stamped.

The asymptomatic, category B patients should report to the authorities for 14 days after their first 14-day quarantine period is over. This norm is in contradiction to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ SOP for international passengers. As per the MHA’s SOP, the asymptomatic passengers will be under institutional quarantine for 14 days. If tested negative after 14 days, they will be allowed to go home and will undertake self-monitoring of their health for 14 more days.
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Bengaluru-based HCG Cancer Hospital has received permission to conduct clinical trials in humans for Cytokine therapy for treating COVID-19 patients.
The hospital completed studies in animals recently.
Cytokines are a group of proteins secreted by cells of the immune system that act as chemical messengers - or enable cell to cell communication. They stimulate the movement of cells towards sites of inflammation, infection and trauma.
This work was started in the immunology lab at HCG hospital to create a treatment for COVID-19 with assistance from Lancet Resource Centre. The team working on this is the same team of doctors who have started Phase-I clinical trials in convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 patients.
In this particular study, the doctors have made a concoction of cytokines from healthy donors, which are known to be effective against COVID-19. Patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 are unable to produce them. The team hopes to create
the first set of injections for Phase 1 clinical trials soon.
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Moving on, in our fake news segment today, Nitin looks at mischievous forwards on social media, that have been going viral during the outbreak..
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Islamophobic propaganda in times of the pandemic is peculiar to India.
This image was posted on Facebook on April 30. The post by Facebook user Vijay Ajay, said that more than 700 men have gathered at a mosque during the lockdown in Tamil Nadu.
The Facebook post also claimed that hundreds of men gathered at midnight for two days in Vellore district.
Another Facebook page called the BJP Coimbatore Thondamuthur Assembly posted the image with the same claim.
But, how were these gatherings allowed by the Tamil Nadu police during the lockdown?
AltNews, a fact-checking platform debunked the claim to be false,
and found that the image was from Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj city.
Alamy, a stock photo agency had posted the same image on May 17, 2018.
The Tirupathur District Police has also dismissed the viral post, calling it ‘fake news’ on their twitter handle.

The tweet said that an FIR had been filed against the miscreants.
Mahesh Vikram Hegde, the founder of Post Card, shared two images recently.
He claimed that they depict vegetable markets in Mizoram, where vendors and customers are practising social distancing.
Shobha De, Danish Manzoor, retired Air Marshal Anil Chopra, and author Shunali Shroff were among those who shared the images.
AltNews has verified that the claim is false. The fact-checking platform has clarified that the images were from a hill station in Myanmar, and not from Mizoram.
Stay tuned for more fake news takedowns.
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And before we go, senior JD(S) leader YSV Datta, popularly known as ‘Datta Meshtru’, has started teaching on social media to help SSLC students awaiting exams amid the pandemic.
To ensure that students get adequate revision before the exams, Datta began Mathematics classes on Facebook from Tuesday. On the first day, his class attracted 4 lakh viewers with over 17,000 shares. The former MLA from Kadur started his career as a teacher in 1970.
Some of his students include Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D K Shivakumar and Food & Civil Supplies Minister K Gopalaiah.
Based on feedback from his students, Datta Meshtru is also considering starting a YouTube channel in the coming months, to reach out to more students. But for now, his focus is on the upcoming SSLC exam.
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For the latest updates, log on to deccanherald.com.