News

Centre lauds Karnataka’s handling of Covid-19; asks other States to emulate its strategies

Anil Urs Bengaluru | Updated on June 19, 2020 Published on June 19, 2020

The Centre has lauded Karnataka's effective Covid-19 handling and containment strategies.

In a letter to all the States, it has asked them to emulate Karnataka's best practices, especially conducting comprehensive surveillance, contact tracing and testing.

Rajesh Bhushan, officer on special duty to the States, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said: “The Ministry has been urging the States to share their good practices so as to enable all States and UTs to replicate these by contextualising it in their own local situation.”

“A facility has also been created on the national health innovations portal under the tag ‘Covid-19 repository’ for States/UTs to upload their good practices,” he added. “I take this opportunity to draw your attention to the following two practices followed in Karnataka that are worth replicating.”

First: The technology-backed system involving multi-sectoral government teams for contact tracing of Covid-19 positive cases established by the State has helped it to effectively trace and track each case, thereby successfully containing the spread of the epidemic, said Bhushan. “As you are aware, comprehensive contact tracing is extremely critical to contain the epidemic and ensure that the health infrastructure does not get overwhelmed,” he added.

Second: Karnataka has also conducted a physical phone-based household survey covering 1.5 crore households across the State to detect vulnerable populations like the elderly, persons with co-morbidities, pregnant women and those with ILI/SARI. This was done through a pan-government approach involving several sectors and teams beyond the health teams.

Subsequently, the vulnerable populations are being regularly contacted by the use of technology such as call centres and tele-consultation helplines as well as household visits to counsel them and keep track of their health, said Bhushan.

Published on June 19, 2020

A letter from the Editor


Dear Readers,

The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.

Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.

In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.

We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.

But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.

I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.

A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!

Support Quality Journalism
Rising SARI, ILI cases haunts Bengaluru