Two COVID-19 deaths in Karnataka, toll now 35; 28 positive cases take count to 987
Bengaluru: With two more deaths, COVID-19 related fatalities rose to 35 in Karnataka and 28 new positive cases were confirmed, taking the total number of infections to 987, as the state tested over 7,000 samples on Thursday.
"...the number of samples tested today, is highest so far. We have tested 7,195 samples," Minister S Suresh Kumar, who is the spokesperson for COVID-19 in Karnataka, told reporters.
A total of 1,28,373 samples were tested, out of which 7,195 were tested on Thursday alone. So far 1,26,766 samples have reported negative, 7,097 today,he said.
The state, which recently crossed the milestone of one lakh COVID-19 tests, plans to boost its testing capacity with 60 labs by end of this month and to conduct 10,000 tests per day.
"As of 6:00 PM on May 14, cumulatively 987 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 35 deaths and 460 discharges," the health department said in its bulletin.
Out of 491 active cases, 482 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while nine are in ICU.
Nine patients have been discharged on Thursday.
The two deceased include a 80-year-old woman from Dakshina Kannada who got admitted to a private hospital with complaint of stroke.
As she tested positive for COVID-19, she was shifted to the ICU of a designated hospital in the district on April 26 and died today due to septic shock.
Also, a 60-year-old man from Ananthapur in Andhra Pradesh, admitted to a dedicated hospital in Bengaluru Urban with features of severe pneumonia, among others, died today due to cardiac arrest.
The 28 new cases include seven from Bidar, five each from Mandya and Bengaluru urban, four from Gadag, three from Davangere, two from Kalaburagi, and one each from Belagavi and Bagalkote.
Among the new cases, five are children.
From across the state most number of infections have been reported in Bengaluru urban with 189 cases, followed by Belagavi 114, Mysuru and Davangere 88.
Out of total 460 patients discharged, maximum 97 are from Bengaluru urban, 86 from Mysuru, 46 from Kalaburagi.
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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".
