Karnataka’s Covid fatality rate dipping, CM Yediyurappa tells PM Modi

BENGALURU: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday regarding the Covid-19 situation, pointed out that the fatality rate in Karnataka was coming down and presently stands at 1.54 per cent, while it was 2.6 per cent in July. The PM held a video conference with the CMs of the seven high Covid-prevalence states — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab — to take stock of the situation.

Yediyurappa informed the PM that the state has set up 136 testing laboratories and testing has been increased to about 70,000 samples per day. So far, about 43 lakh samples have been tested. All symptomatic patients are shifted to hospitals immediately after the test results are out and a target has been set to identify all contacts of Covid-19 positive cases in 24 to 48 hours and quarantine them, he said.

The CM said the number of oxygen beds in government hospitals has been increased from 7,000 to 18,000, and will be further enhanced to 31,000. Over 3,000 ICU beds in government and private hospitals have been reserved for Covid patients. Besides standard treatment, “We are also ensuring that patients are given ‘novel drugs’, including Remdesivir, for free.’’ The government has also made available 2,000 ambulances, he said.

Govt working on increasing oxygen  capacity in hospitals, says BSY

On the issue of oxygen supply, Yediyurappa said permission has been given to convert industrial oxygen cylinders into medical cylinders and work on increasing the storage capacity in hospitals has been taken up on a war-footing. It may be recalled that during the previous video conference with the PM, Karnataka had requested for setting up of liquid oxygen plants. Availability of liquid oxygen for medical purposes is presently around 375 metric tons per day. “But if there is a surge in the number of positive cases, we will not be able to provide sufficient medical oxygen without affecting industries”, the CM said.

He suggested that the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion can incentivise the industry to set up new oxygen generation units. Hospitals are also being encouraged to ramp up oxygen production at their levels, he said.

Other suggestions by the CM included a mission mode approach for the next six months, strict enforcement in containment zones and dynamically redefining them, re-testing of all symptomatic negatives in antigen tests, graded opening of economic activities after ensuring adequate testing and hospital infrastructure, regular monitoring of those in home isolation and more focus on the nine districts with high mortality rates.