The ongoing strike by over 30,000 contractual staff working under National Health Mission (NHM) entered the second day on Friday and partially hit reporting of COVID-19 cases and testing.
The staff, comprising doctors, nurses, lab technicians and data entry operators, stayed away from work despite the government ordering district officials to crack down and take action against them.
Under the aegis of Karnataka State Health and Medical Education Department Contractual Employees’ Forum, the NHM contractual staff are not just into data entry but also run front offices in most hospitals, handle clerical work, like admissions and OPD referrals, and tabulate public health work.
The State on Friday reported 8,655 new cases taking the total number of cases to 5,57,212. With 86 new deaths, the toll rose to 8,417. This includes 19 non-COVID-19 deaths.
As many as 5,644 persons were discharged on Friday taking the total number of recoveries to 4,50,302. Active cases continued to remain below one lakh with 98,474 cases under treatment in various hospitals. Of these, 823 patients are being monitored in the ICUs.
Bengaluru Urban reported 4,080 cases taking the total tally to 2,12,547. With 32 of the 86 deaths from Bengaluru, the toll in this district rose to 2,794.
As many as 59,919 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, including 20,284 rapid antigen tests. With this, the total number of tests rose to 45,18,923.