<p>Karnataka records an all-time high of 149 new COVID-19 cases today, a large number are those who have returned from Mumbai.KSRTC and BMTC resume operations, we tell you what you must watch out for.As Class 10 exams are announced, Nitin speaks to Vidhya Y from Vision Empower, to understand the challenges before differently abled students in prepping for an exam in such a short period of time.<br />The daily update with Akhil Kadidal.</p>.<p>----</p>.<p>Full text:</p>.<p><br />Hello. This the daily COVID update from Deccan Herald. <br />On the bulletin today:<br />Karnataka records an all time high 149 new cases, the state’s transport corporations start operations...<br />And later in the bulletin, Nitin speaks to Vidhya Y from Vision Empower, to find out if students who are visually or hearing impared, will be ready in time to sit for their examinations...<br />But first, a look at the daily figures<br />At the time of this recording, more than 61,000 people are active carriers of the novel coronavirus in the country. India breached the 1 lakh mark in the number of cases reported so far.</p>.<p><br />ICMR has tested more than twenty four lakh samples for the novel coronavirus so far. Out of this, around one lakh samples tested in the last 24 hours.</p>.<p>149 new cases have been recorded from Karnataka today, a large number of these have a travel history to Mumbai.<br />Chikkamagalur which did not have any COVID-19 cases so far has reported 5 today.</p>.<p>Mandya tops the list with 71 new cases, all from Mumbai. Davangere reported 22 cases - a mix of those who are primary contacts, and also those with a travel history to Ahmedabad and Kerala. Kalaburagi has 13 new cases, and all are from Mumbai. In Shivamogga, of the 10 new cases, 5 are those with a travel history to Mumbai, the rest have returned from Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, while the source of infection is being determined for 2 others.</p>.<p>With this, the state has reported 1395 cases in total. There are 811 active cases. 543 patients have recovered, while 40 have died. The state has tested more than 6000 samples in the last 24 hours.</p>.<p>There have been a total of three deaths today in the state. Patient 1185 from Ballari, Patient 1291 from Vijayapura and Patient 1364 from Bengaluru passed away today. They all had heart ailments and other comorbidities. <br />----<br />With life almost back to normal - almost - we’re all getting back to the grind. For many of us, the lockdown came with a set of challenges. For students, online learning took off in a big way during the lockdown - but only for those students who could either afford it, or were not faced with challenges in accessing the content. However, those who didn’t own laptops or have an internet connection, fell behind. As did those who are differently abled. The lack of content for those who are visually or hearing impared, has meant that these students will find it especially hard to face upcoming exams, since they have both lost out on classes, and neither will they have enough time to prepare. My colleague Nitin, spoke to Vidhya Y, who runs Vision Empower to understand what the challenges are...<br />----<br />That’s a tough set of options there...moving on, In news from Karnataka,<br />Various road transport corporations resumed operations as many restrictions were lifted as part of Lockdown 4.0.<br />In Bengaluru, there was chaos as KSRTC decided to run only 25% of its fleet, the shortage of buses was the main complaint of passengers going to Raichur, Yadgir, Kalaburagi, Belagavi and other districts in northern parts of Karnataka. </p>.<p>In Bengaluru, BMTC has decided to operate buses on 'high-density corridors', but will not allow cash transactions, making passes compulsory, except for 75 buses where passengers can make digital payments. In a release, the corporation said passengers with monthly, weekly and daily passes will be allowed to commute. The weekly pass, a new introduction, costs 300 rupees. </p>.<p>Other types of passes will not be allowed. A photo identity card is mandatory to obtain the weekly pass and it should be produced while travelling. Masks are compulsory for both the crew and the passengers. Passengers will be allowed to board the bus only if seats are available. </p>.<p>In Mangaluru, KSRTC has started bus services to taluk headquarters and long- routes like Bengaluru, Mysuru, Shivamogga, Hubballi and other areas. In keeping with the curfew restrictions, buses with destinations that fall beyond 7pm arrival time will not be allowed to operate. As a result, after 11 am, no buses will travel to Bengaluru from Mangaluru. <br />Private bus operators in the district have decided not to resume operations until the end of the month, since they will have to pay the tax for the entire month of May.</p>.<p>North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation has also decided to introduce online payment for instant tickets through mobile apps, to minimise human contact in buses.<br />In the next two-three days all the 4,500 buses under the NW-KRTC jurisdiction will have a QR-code payment system.<br />To minimise physical contact of both passengers and staff, NWKRTC is also considering ‘rounding’ the fare to the nearest value.<br />As a safety measure, all the drivers of NWKRTC have been instructed not to ‘pick up’ a bus that has not been sanitised. Buses will be sanitised after every trip.</p>.<p>On the first day of resuming its services, KSRTC operated a total of 1606 buses ferrying 53,476 passengers across Karnataka. From Bengaluru alone 213 buses carried 6000 passengers. <br />KSRTC has also released the departure timing for the last bus leaving from Bengaluru to various districts. The last bus to Shimoga from Bengaluru will leave at 12 pm, to Hassan 3.30 pm. To North Karnataka districts like Koppala, Hubballi, Gadag, the last bus service is at 11 am. This is to make sure that the buses reach their destination before the curfew at 7 pm. </p>.<p>That's all from us today. For the latest updates, log on to deccanherald.com. Stay safe and we’ll see you tomorrow.</p>
