Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar on Tuesday said that the State is likely to see its cases peak in July. Speaking in Chickballapur, the Minister said experts have warned that the State’s cases will peak next month.

“We are equipped to handle any explosion of cases. We are testing primary and secondary contacts to ensure that the transmission is curbed at these levels. We have excellent teams of experts who are guiding us in our control measures,” he said.

‘Bengaluru model’

In a tweet, the Minister said the Bengaluru model of handling COVID-19 pandemic beats that of New Zealand, a country which has managed to not report any new COVID-19 cases for the last 18 days.

The tweet – with a poster comparing Bengaluru’s and New Zealand’s population, area, population density, cases and deaths – says New Zealand’s population, area and population density were far lesser than that of Bengaluru while the cases and deaths were more compared to the city. “New Zealand has 1,150 cases and 22 deaths while Bengaluru has 450 cases and 13 deaths,” the poster read.

General ailments

Since March, district hospitals that were converted into COVID-19 hospitals and for treatment of non-COVID-19 ailments, will resume their general OPD and in-patient services.

In a circular issued on Tuesday, Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said there will be separate entries for COVID-19 patients and those seeking treatment for other ailments. Hospital Heads have been asked to take precautions to ensure general patients do not come in contact with COVID-19 positive patients.