36 new COVID-19 cases in Karnataka, tally touches 1,092
Bengaluru: As many as 36 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Karnataka on Saturday, taking the infection tally to 1,092, a Karnataka Minister said.
The total cases include 496 discharges, 559 active cases and 36 coronavirus deaths, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar, who is spokesperson for COVID-19 in the State, told reporters.
He added that 13 coronavirus patients are in the Intensive Care Units (ICU).
According to the health department bulletin, 14 COVID-19 cases were reported in Bengaluru urban district alone, followed by eight in Kalaburagi, three in Shivamogga, three in Hassan and one case each in Mandya, Udupi, Dharwad, Vijayapura, Bagalkote, Davangere, Ballari and Davangere.
The cases include two women and a one-year-old girl from Udupi.
The biggest contributor of today's tally was Bengaluru with the cases being the secondary contact of a house-keeper of a hotel in the city, health department sources said.
The three positive cases from Hassan and one from Dharwad had travel history to Mumbai whereas the Udupi girl had returned from Dubai.
The Minister said the health department has issued a circular regarding those who returned from foreign countries that they will have to quarantine twice for a total of 28 days -- one at the quarantine centre and second as home quarantine after reaching their respective districts.
"Even if they test negative for COVID-19 at the quarantine centre, they will have to undergo home quarantine for 14 days," the minister explained.
According to the circular, the travellers will have to arrange for their travel and the police will issue passes for them. These passengers will have to coordinate with the COVID-19 nodal officer.
Kumar said the Union Home Ministry has issued a circular on the migrant labourers that they should not be allowed to walk on the railway track or road.
Instead, arrangements should be made to send them by special trains and special buses, he said.
The minister said a patient, who had committed an offence by escaping from a containment zone here, would be booked for violating the COVID-19 guidelines.
Regarding the alleged substandard food to those quarantined in hotels, Suresh Kumar said the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (city civic body) will make sure to take the case to the logical end.
"Those quarantined in the hotels are our guests and we cannot allow such incidents to happen," the minister added.
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Indigo cancels 67 flights from multiple airports due to bad weather, operational issues
Mumbai (PTI): Domestic carrier IndiGo on Thursday cancelled 67 flights from multiple airports due to "forecasted" bad weather and operational reasons, according to the airline's website.
Of the 67 cancelled flights, only four were for operational reasons, and the rest were due to "forecasted" bad weather at various airports, including Agartala, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Varanasi, Bengaluru, among others, as per the website.
Aviation regulator, DGCA, has announced the period between December 10 and February 10 next year as the official fog window this winter.
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As part of the DGCA fog operations (CAT-IIIB) norms, airlines have to mandatorily roster pilots who are trained to operate in low-visibility conditions, as well as deploy a CAT-IIIB-compliant aircraft fleet for such operations.
Category-III is an advanced navigation system that empowers an aircraft to land under foggy conditions.
Category-III-A is a precision instrument approach and landing that enables a plane to land with a runway visual range (RVR) of 200 metres, while Category-III-B helps in landing with an RVR of under 50 metres.
IndiGo, whose operations are under DGCA monitoring after the cancellations of thousands of flights early this month, is already operating a curtailed schedule in compliance with the government's order.
Under its original winter flight schedule, the airline was permitted to operate 15,014 domestic flights per week, or about 2,144 flights per day, roughly six per cent higher than the 14,158 weekly flights it operated during the summer schedule of 2025.
However, after the massive disruptions, which saw the airline cancelling 1,600 flights on a single day on account of new rest norms for pilots, which allow more rest to the pilots, the government cut down the airline's domestic flight schedule by 10 per cent or 214 flights per day.
As a result of that, IndiGo can't operate more than 1,930 flights per day on domestic routes under its current winter schedule.
The Rahul Bhatia-controlled airline cancelled thousands of flights between December 1 and December 9 on account of a lack of proper planning, and crew shortage in implementing the new set of regulations for pilots' duty period and rest, which were put in place from November 1, thereby causing severe hardships to lakhs of air travellers.
Following this, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) formed a four-member panel, comprising Joint DG Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal, with a mandate to identify the root causes of widespread operational disruptions at the Rahul Bhatia-controlled domestic carrier.
The panel, which has already grilled IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras as part of its probe, is expected to submit its report by this week.
Meanwhile, IndiGo, in a travel advisory on X, said, "Low visibility and fog over Bangalore has impacted flight schedule. We are keeping a close watch on the weather and doing our best where you need to be safely, smoothly".
Reacting to the advisory, an aggrieved passenger, in an X post, said, "My flight on December 20 from Bhubaneswar to Ahmedabad got delayed for more than five hours, and today my return flight from Ahmedabad to Bhubaneswar also got delayed more than three hours with the same excuse as bad weather. I am travelling with my senior citizen parents, and this delay is not acceptable. Need proper explanation, along with compensation".
