Karnataka to soon reach goal of 1 lakh tests per day: Medical Education Minister
Bengaluru: Karnataka will soon reach its goal of conducting one lakh COVID-19 tests per day as it has increased the number of labs and the tests done, Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said here on Saturday.
"From one testing lab for COVID-19 test, we have opened 108 labs in six months. From 300 tests per day, we have increased it to 75,000. This will soon reach the goal of one lakh tests per day," Sudhakar was quoted as saying in a release by his office.
He said the state government has shown its commitment to contain the pandemic and has been successful.
The Minister was speaking after inaugurating the MVJ Molecular Lab at MVJ Medical College & Research Hospital at nearby Hoskote
Stating that COVID-19 can be prevented completely only with the use of a vaccine, he said the death rate in the state was about 1.65 per cent and the aim is to bring it down to less than one per cent.
As of September 4 evening, cumulatively 3,79,486 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 6,170 deaths and 2,74,196 discharges.
Bengaluru urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 1,41,664 infections.
A total of 31,97,110 samples have been tested so far, out of which 73,192 were tested on Friday alone, and among them 31,641 were rapid antigen tests.
Stressing the need to improve the quality of the medical education system in Karnataka and also bring about change, Sudhakar said a study of the medical education system in developed nations must be carried out and measures that aid the system here has to be incorporated to make this possible,.
"A decision will be taken in this regard," he added.
The Minister noted that molecular test labs should be opened in government medical colleges and asked the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences to look into it.
He said medical universities must collaborate with international medical colleges to send medical students from the states clinical expos and added that this was necessary to provide exposure to newer findings in the field of medicine.
"The state government had planned to launch an initiative this year, but it could not be carried out due to Covid pandemic. However, it will be planned next year," he added.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
