BSY holds meet with DCs, ministers on tackling Covid

BENGALURU: Following a surge in Covid cases in the State, even in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa held a virtual meeting with deputy commissioners, top officials of police and health departments and in-charge ministers on Thursday.

He directed district-level officials to ramp up testing and medical infrastructure for better management of cases, which have seen a spike after a large number of people have started moving from cities to their hometowns in rural areas after the 14-day shutdown was announced. The DCs were told to set up Covid Care Centres on priority.

“Funds have already been released to the DCs and they should be used to distribute free medical kits to patients under home isolation. Teams should be formed to monitor the health of such patients. Task forces should be set up at taluk and gram panchayat levels to take care of infected people. Testing should focus on symptomatic patients and results should be given within 24 hours,” he told the officials.

“The DCs were told to ensure strict implementation of Covid protocols. From the Home Department, we will depute five ADGPs for supervision and deploy around 8,500 home guards for Covid management. Over 300 inmates in jails across the state, who have tested or suspected positive, have been kept in isolation and all precautions have been taken. Over 15,000 registered volunteers of the Civil Defence Force will be deployed in each ward in Bengaluru for tracking and tracing purposes,” said Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai after the meeting.

The DCs were told to ensure an uninterrupted supply of oxygen at hospitals, while all hospitals too were asked to conduct an audit of oxygen and Remdesivir stocks. Yediyurappa stressed on judicious use of oxygenated beds, ventilators and Remdesivir. He was told that the oxygen generating plant in Mysuru has five units, of which only two are functional. The Mysuru DC was directed to take steps to repair the remaining three units at the earliest.