Bengaluru, Aug 11 (IANS): The Karnataka government has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to issue new guidelines to utilize final year MBBS students for Covid duties to ensure sufficient trained manpower, said a minister after attending a video conference with the PM on the state of the pandemic in 10 states on Tuesday.

"Requested the Centre to set new guidelines to utilize final year MBBS and degree students for Covid duties to ensure adequate supply of trained manpower," said Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar.

He also requested Modi to raise the number of MBBS seats by 2,000 and graduate seats by 10,000.

As Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa went into self-quarantine after a week's hospitalisation on Monday evening after recovering from Covid, two of his cabinet colleagues, Sudhakar and Deputy Chief Minister C. N. Ashwath Narayan, substituted for him in the chief ministers' video conference called by Modi on the coronavirus.

Following the meeting, Sudhakar said Modi suggested that the state governments aim for reducing the fatality rate to 1 per cent and instructed them to ensure contact tracing up to 70 per cent to control the spread of the virus.

"The prime minister has also said that 80 per cent of the cases in India exist in 10 states and these states need to undertake drastic steps to defeat the pandemic," he said.

In the video conference, Modi stressed that primary contacts of an infected person should be traced within 72 hours.

Chief Secretary T. M. Vijay Bhaskar and other senior officials were also present along with the ministers at the virtual meeting.

Karnataka registered 4,267 new Covid infections on Monday, taking the overall tally in the state to 1.82 lakh.