Bengaluru, Sep 11 (IANS): Alarmed by the spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in rural Karnataka, the state government on Thursday directed the primary healthcare centres (PHCs) and the community healthcare centres (CHCs) to rope in data entry operators from the gram panchayats to assist in containing the disease.

"Due to staff shortage at PHCs and CHCs at various taluks of the state, smooth functioning of these centres has become difficult," a circular issued by Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar stated.

The circular further read that there isn't adequate staff to take up measures to contain the disease and to register patients under various programmes of the Health and Family Welfare Department.

Till the department makes arrangements for the same, data entry operators at the gram panchayats will have to work one hour per day at the nearest PHC and CHC.

The circular also directed the Chief Executive Officers of all Zilla Panchayats to depute data entry operators for such healthcare centres. They would be trained at the taluk level by taluk health officers for the purpose.

The circular was issued following challenges faced by the district administrations in documenting the cases after Karnataka started recording more than 7,000 cases per day on an average, of which around 65 percent were from outside the Bengaluru Urban district.

In a related development, state Medical Education Minister M. Sudhakar asserted that the state government would take steps to bring down the present Covid-19 death rate from 1.62 percent to 1 percent.