We Made A Game In 14 Days... 'pendek' Out Now!

With the Centre banning flights to and from UK, from December 22 midnight till December 31, in light of a new and highly infectious strain of virus detected there, the Karnataka Government has decided to trace all the passengers who had arrived in Bengaluru and Mangaluru from the UK from December 7. The district surveillance officers have been asked to trace, test and place such people under home quarantine. Those who are RT-PCR positive shall be placed under hospital isolation and positive samples will be sent to NIMHANS, Bengaluru for molecular testing. Passengers who are RT-PCR negative, shall be under strict home quarantine for 14 days.
The Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar told the media that 531 passengers had arrived from UK into the State on Sunday and out of them, 138 didn’t have covid negative certificates though all of them were asymptomatic. “Hence, now we are trying to trace them in a day or two and conduct RT-PCR tests.
We will also set up kiosks at airports for checking all the passengers coming from Europe and even other transit centres.” He also asked all the returnees from Europe to go for voluntary RT-PCR tests. The Minister also dismissed talks of lockdown in Karnataka.
Meanwhile, Dr Jagadish Hiremath, Medical Director at Ace Suhas Hospital, has called for strict policy measures for all the passengers from Europe. Dr. Srivatsa Lokeshwaran, Consultant - Interventional Pulmonology, Aster CMI Hospital said that the new-found serotype of the virus was causing a massive upsurge of cases in the UK. “The virus is 70 per cent more infectious. However, whether it may lead to more morbidity and mortality is yet to be understood. The RNA virus has always had the tendency to mutate fast and hence, there are several challenges which are being faced in tackling this virus. If the UK is able to contain the virus locally it will help put out the flame early,” he said.
So, how cautious Bengalureans need to be. DR P Rupashree, Consultant General Physician at Apollo Spectra Hospital, said, “In our interconnected world, it is easy for the virus to spread in no time. So yes, there is a definite possibility of the mutated UK strain coming to India. Right now, we still don’t know if the mutated strain in the UK has made the virus more dangerous or less dangerous. If mutations cause significant changes in the virus and rapidly enough, then the effect of any vaccine against the virus will be short-lived and we will need to get a new vaccine every year just like we are doing for the Flu vaccine currently. Only time will tell,” she added.
However, Dr Hiremath added that mutations were common and take place regularly in viruses. “It’s unlikely that another mutation affecting the virus similarly will happen again. The vaccine has been found to retain its potency against this strain too. So for now there is no cause to worry much.”

One more meeting about schools
Dr K Sudhakar said it was too early to predict if this new development will affect the government’s decision to resume classes for class 10 and II PU. He said that he will meet once more with experts to get their recommendation on school reopening. The health minister also warned hotels against violating government norms in organising New Year parties.

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