From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Aug 11: Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his video conference with the Chief Ministers of India’s 10 States with the most number of COVID positive cases and asked the State Governments to take concerted action to bring down the country’s fatality rate to 1 % as part of the strategy to contain the pandemic.

In the video conference with the Chief Ministers of the 10 states with maximum number of Corona positive cases held by the Prime Minister on Tuesday, Karnataka was represented by Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar and Chief Secretary T M Vijaya Bhaskar along with other senior officials.

Apart from Karnataka, the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala States participated in the video conference with the Prime Minister.

Though Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has returned home after testing negative after nine days stay in the Manipal Hospital, he chose not to participate in the video conference with the Prime Minister in order to remain at home for three days.

The Prime Minister appreciated the efforts of the State Governments in effectively handling the situation arising out of the Corona virus and said the country would be able to overcome the pandemic menace if all the States worked in a concerted and systematic manner.

“It is a matter of satisfaction that the number of active cases was coming down and the number of persons recovering after being tested positive was gradually reducing,’’ the Prime Minister said pointing out that the situation has resulted in increasing public confidence and reducing the fears over the intensity of the pandemic.

Modi said the country need to work to bring down the fatality rate to 1 % and increase the testing, tracking, treatment and isolation of the active cases.

“We can control the pandemic if the infection cases were identified in the early stages. It is necessary to track and identify the active cases within 72 hours,’’ Modi said.

Karnataka plans to increase 75,000 tests daily

Deputy Chief Minister Dr Ashwath Narayan and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, both of whom are medical doctors, explained the steps taken by the State Government to test, track, identify and treat the infected persons and also create public awareness by constituting booth level teams to handle the task.

The COVID testing has been increased from 20,000 a day to 50,000 a day, the ministers said informing the Prime Minister that Karnataka planned to increase the number of tests to 75,000 a day to systematically tackle the pandemic.

Karnataka has established as many as 100 ICMR approved laboratories and dispatched 1,300 mobile testing teams in all containment areas and buffer zones, the ministers said.

The State Government has ensured that all the COVID asymptomatic persons were confined to their homes and taking care to check on them through tele-monitoring. The health task forces and teams were also visiting such persons to monitor the situation, the ministers said.

Dr Ashwath Narayan and Dr Sudhakar informed the Prime Minister that the State Government has taken steps to reserve 50% of the beds in the hospitals belonging to private medical colleges, 17 government colleges and also other private hospitals for COVID patients.

Karnataka has taken steps to bear the cost of testing and treatment of all COVID positive patients, including those referred by the private hospitals.

1,04,000 beds available

In addition to the total availability of 1,04,000 beds in hospital across the State for treatment of COVID positive patients, the State Government has also made available a well-equipped COVID Care Centre in the Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) with 10,100 beds.

Steps have also been taken to make available 1,600 oxygen-equipped beds over and above the existing 5,500 beds in the public health institutions. The number of oxygenated beds will be enhanced to 20,000 by the end of September. The availability of ambulances has been increased from 800 to 2,000, the ministers said.

Pointing out the measures taken by the State Government in containing the pandemic and also create public awareness, the ministers said as many as 2,05,029 cases of people not wearing masks or maintaining social distancing norms have been registered and fine of Rs 6.65 crore collected across the State so far and 3,246 persons found violating the home quarantine norms have been admitted in institutional quarantine with 5,821 FIRs registered.

Dr Ashwath Narayan and Dr Sudhakar, who have been engaged in the COVID monitoring and supervision work, said reducing the fatality rate was the priority of the State Government. Increasing the number of tests, collection of test samples and providing rapid results of the tests and eliminating delays in transfer of patients to hospitals or homes were part of the measures that have helped in bringing down the fatality rate in the State to 1.8% this month.

Of the total number of 1,82,354 cases reported in the State, 79,908 were active cases. Karnataka presently has 1.14 lakh COVID Care Centre beds, 20,000 ordinary beds, 8,000 oxygen equipped beds, 3,000 ICU beds and 1,500 ventilators-equipped beds and was fully geared to meet the situation.

The ministers stated that the Centre had made available 2,205 ventilators to the State.

The health centres of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) were well equipped for handling comprehensive data maintenance and implementing other national programmes.

Karnataka’s demands

The State team of ministers sought the Centre’s permission for final year medical students and pre-final para medical students for COVID related work and also engage the medical students for conducting classes.

The State Government urged the Centre to allow 10,000 additional medical seats and 2,000 post-graduate seats annually besides bringing changes in rules to ensure that the medical degree and post-graduate students to work government service compulsorily as part of the measures to increase the medical personnel.

The State Government also demanded that health-related research must be made compulsory in medical institutions and equip them with liquid oxygen units.