Like-minded people from India and Australia who have formed a team called “Medical Oxygen for All” have donated 22 oxygen concentrators to Dharwad. On Thursday, Superintendent of Police of Dharwad P. Krishnakant handed them over to the Health Department in the district.
Mr. Krishnakant, who is part of “Medical Oxygen for All”, symbolically handed over a few oxygen concentrators to District Health Officer Yashwanth Madinkar at his office on Thursday.
Mudumbai Seshachulu Narasimhan, a towering figure in Indian science, passed away on May 15 in Bangalore; he would have turned 89 on June 7.
South Korea-based multinational company Seoul Semiconductors handed over medical supplies worth ₹7.5 crore under its CSR fund to the State government on Friday, to support the battle against COVID-19.
In yet another move that would help tide over the oxygen shortage in Karnataka, a total of 34,200 kilograms of Zeolite, a key component in production of oxygen, reached the Bengaluru airport from Rome via two Air India cargo flights on Sunday morning.
More than 40 doctors of Mysuru origin settled in the United Kingdom have joined the telemedicine initiative launched by the Mysuru district administration for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in home isolation.
Dharwad-based Shilpa Biologicals Private Limited (SBPL) will manufacture Sputnik V vaccine at its production centre in Belur Industrial Area, near Dharwad.
It will be among the first production units of the Russian vaccine in India.
SBPL is an arm of Shilpa Medicare, one of the top suppliers of drugs in the country, established in 1987 in Raichur.
Sputnik V has been developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology of Russia.
Indian pharmaceutical company Dr Reddy’s Laboratory entered into a partnership with Russian Direct Investment Fund for the vaccine in India.
Doctors living across the world — all alumni of the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) from the 1992 batch — have now banded together with a coalition of volunteer groups to offer end-to-end COVID-19 management for patients in Karnataka, particularly in Bengaluru.
While the Karnataka COVID-19 Volunteers Team (KCVT), with over 500 members, has set up a helpline (080-47166115) which counsels patients, refers them to doctors for tele-consultation, helps in home management and to find hospital beds, Mercy Mission is operating two COVID-19 care centres and has a tie-up with the HBS Hospital in Shivajinagar for critical care. While the helpline and tele-consultation with doctors is available for patients across the State, other on ground facilities are in the city.
Health and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar reviewed ongoing efforts at Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), which is developing a vaccine for COVID-19, and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) that has developed a drug that prevents viral growth and a better oxygen management system. He hailed them as “game changers in the fight against COVID-19”.
Dr. Sudhakar visited DRDO facilities in the city on Friday where scientists appraised him of progress on 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) drug they are developing in collaboration with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hyderabad. “Clinical trial results have shown that this molecule helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence,” DRDO scientists said.
He was also apprised of the OxyCare system, an intelligent oxygen management system that reduces exposure of healthcare providers by eliminating manual adjustments to oxygen flow. The PM-CARES Fund will procure 1.5 lakh units of Oxycare System at a cost of ₹322.5 crore. It will be deployed across the country, DRDO scientists said.
Philanthropists and corporates have been stepping in to help the city fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
St. Martha’s Hospital received 150 sets of oxygen concentrators that were sent by Dubai-based NRI Eugene Mayne, founder and chief executive of the Tristar Group.
Mr. Mayne, a graduate of St. Joseph’s Bangalore and Bangalore University, sourced the oxygen concentrators from Europe.
The second Indian Navy vessel carrying oxygen and other medical aid from Kuwait arrived at the New Mangaluru Port on Monday.
According to a press release by the New Mangaluru Port Trust, the Indian Navy vessel INS Kolkata brought two containers with 20 tonnes of oxygen, 200 oxygen cylinders packed in 10 pallets of 10 ton and four 10-litre high flow oxygen concentrators. This was sent by Government of Kuwait to the Indian Red Cross Society for use in treatment of COVID-19 patients.