Bengaluru, Sep 10 (IANS): Ahead of major festivals like Dasara and Deepavali, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Thursday instructed deputy commissioners and Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officers (ZP-CEOs) to increase the number of COVID-19 tests in order to help people celebrate these festivals joyfully.

In his interactions with DCs and ZP-CEOs through video conference from his home office here, Yediyurappa said that there was no dearth of funds to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. "This pandemic has broken our economy's back, now we cannot afford to let it ruin our festivities and people's joy on the occasions. Therefore, the DCs must take stringent steps to increase testing rate in their respective districts to not only to reduce the number of deaths but also to improve the well-being of our people," he explained.

The CM further added that the state government had procured enough number of testing kits to meet the increased demand.

He quickly added that the DCs should take immediate steps for contact tracing. "Contact tracing is the first step towards fighting this dreaded virus," he asserted.

Apart from this, Yediyurappa also maintained that the state government had also taken steps to appoint doctors on an ad-hoc basis. "The state government has completed counselling for the medical Post Graduation courses in the state. As many as 900 young doctors will be available in this pool. In a day or two we will complete the process of sending these doctors wherever there is scarcity of doctors," he claimed.

The CM also suggested that the DCs should develop co-operative mechanisms in the event of shortage of oxygen cylinders, medicines or testing kits. "Each and every DC should help each other in their neighbouring districts.