Bengaluru crosses 1 lakh mark in COVID cases

Bengaluru: Karnataka’s capital city crossed the one lakh firure in Covid-19 cases with the addition of 2948 new coronavirus cases Friday. The city’s Covid cases stood at 1,02,770 and 22 deaths were reported today taking the total to 1635.

Across the state, there were 7571 new COVID cases, taking the active caseload to 83066 and overall cases to 2,64,546. Apart from Bengaluru, cases are also on the rise in Ballari (540), Belagavi (384) Udupi (278) and Yadgiri (255)

Meanwhile, as the death toll is on the rise, the queues in front of the four electric crematoria earmarked for Covid-19 victims in Bengaluru are getting longer. Civic workers, ambulance drivers and family members of the dead are made to spend most of the day in front of one of the crematoria, waiting for their turn to bid a final farewell to the deceased.

NGOs involved in ferrying the dead on their last journey said the waiting period has increased to 6-7 hours since one week. “There are days when we have had to take back bodies to mortuaries as we were unable to get them cremated till midnight,” a volunteer was quoted in the media.

Meanwhile, protests erupted in Mysuru after a government doctor on COVID duty committed, reportedly due to work pressure

The incident took place after Nanjangud Taluk (Mysuru district) Health Officer, SR Nagendra.

Colleagues of SR Nagendra accused ZP CEO Prashanth Kumar Mishra of abetting the suicide by asking the doctor to keep up with high demands of conducting antigen tests for Covid-19.

Doctors have threatened to go on strike unless Mishra is suspended and arrested for abetting the suicide of Nagendra.