Officials wearing masks work in the Karnataka Chief Ministers War Room on Covid-19, at DIPR Building, in Bangalore, Tuesday, March 24, 2020. The incident has prompted Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to intervene to ensure that “local and partisan vested interests” did not prevail over national interest. The residents of Kasaragod, the northern most district of Kerala, depend on facilities in the neighbouring Karnataka for health care. In his letter to Modi on Sunday, Kerala chief minister and CPM leader Vijayan highlighted the importance of these border roads. “It has also been reported that in the Mangalore border near Thalapady, movement of an ambulance carrying a critical patient was blocked and the patient died,” he wrote.

Source: The Telegraph March 29, 2020 20:26 UTC