Karnataka Covid lockdown news live: Tier-2 cities and towns also reel under oxygen shortage

The Central Crime Branch of city police arrested two staffers of a government hospital and two middlemen for allegedly issuing fake Covid-negative reports for a price since Thursday. The accused are Bhagya, a junior health worker and Anil Kumar, lab technician, both attached with Dommasandra Primary Health Centre; the middlemen are Mukhesh Singh, 25, of Chodadenahalli and Nagaraj alias Om Shakti, 39, of Hosahalli. Police said the gang issued fake negative reports to many people and charged Rs 700 for each. They said Singh and Shakti developed contact with Bhagya and Kumar at Dommasandra Primary Health Center. The duo used to roam around the hospital and approach people desperately seeking a negative report.

The city police have quickly set up a Covid care centre for the personnel in uniform and their families as infections continue to climb and overwhelm the hospital system. The 50-bed centre has come up inside the new police residential complex in Kadugodi that is yet to be inaugurated. Biocon executive chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has funded the centre, which will become functional on Saturday. “There are two sides to this. One, we did not want to burden hospitals and other medical facilities, which are already under pressure. Instead, we wanted a facility exclusively for the police department. Two, we wanted to boost the morale of the force that has been working hard despite the risk of contracting the virus. This is the least we can do for our corona warriors, who have been working tirelessly,” said DCP (Whitefield) D Devraj, who came up with the idea.

Police on Friday seized 1,610 vehicles, including 1,450 two-wheelers, 90 three-wheelers and 70 four-wheelers. The riders and drivers of these vehicles were found to be violating prohibitory orders by moving around on roads without valid reason. The number is a dip from the seizures made on Thursday, when 1,669 two-wheelers, 72 three-wheelers and 81 fourwheelers (1,822 in total) were confiscated. On Wednesday, traffic police had seized 435 two-wheelers, 45 three-wheelers and 23 four wheelers (503 in all).

Not just Bengaluru, but several smaller cities and towns have also been hit by oxygen shortage amid the surge in Covid-19 cases. At least a dozen deaths have been reported — four in Kolar, four in Mysuru and four in three other districts — allegedly due to oxygen scarcity. According to health department officials, till recently most districts were self-sufficient when it comes to oxygen, but with cases spiking by the day, hospitals, especially private ones, are under stress.

Although Karnataka officially reported 20 cases of people infected with the B.1.617 variant — commonly known as the double mutant — of SARS-CoV2, there has been no further cell culture research in the state. The neuro virology lab at Nimhans, which conducted genomic sequencing of cluster cases in Karnataka, says they have no infrastructure for such high-end research. Currently, double mutant strain samples are being sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, for cell culture studies. Studies on cell culture help determine transmission rate and reproduction number of the mutant virus. Precisely what proportion of swab samples in Karnataka have been tested for the double mutant variant through the genomic sequencing unknown.

Ever since the second wave of infections hit, Karnataka has lost three doctors — Dr GN Ganesh Kumar, 59, from Chamarajanagar, Dr Mahesh, a paediatrician from Ramanagar district and Dr Ramegowda CC, 51, from Bengaluru — to Covid-19. All three had taken at least the first dose of the vaccine, their colleagues told TOI. While Dr Ramegowda, founder and head of Rashi Diagnostic Centre, died on Thursday, Dr Ganesh, who worked as a medical officer in a general hospital in Kollegal taluk, breathed his last on Tuesday (April 27). Dr Mahesh, who worked in Channapatna general hospital, also succumbed to the virus April 18.

With the number of people needing hospitalisation increasing and the state facing a shortage of just about everything from drugs to oxygen needed to treat patients, tempers are fraying. “How is it that aged politicians like BS Yediyurappa and HD Deve Gowda easily get beds and recover, while my family members die?” thundered 35-year-old Shivanna, who lost three members of his family to the virus in a matter 10 days. Vidyaranyapura police were in a quandary for hours after Shivanna, a resident of Singapura Layout, refused to allow the body of his wife, Girija, to be removed from his house for cremation on Wednesday night.

Not just Bengaluru, but several smaller cities and towns have also been hit by oxygen shortage amid the surge in Covid-19 cases. At least a dozen deaths have been reported — four in Kolar, four in Mysuru and four in three other districts — allegedly due to oxygen scarcity. According to health department officials, till recently most districts were self-sufficient when it comes to oxygen, but with cases spiking by the day, hospitals, especially private ones, are under stress.

Karnataka became the third state in the country — after Maharashtra and Kerala — to breach the 15-lakh total caseload on Friday, posting record-shattering 48,296 fresh Covid-19 infections in the past 24 hours. Karnataka’s daily spike is the highest for any state, barring only Maharashtra. Bengaluru set a grim record for itself, reporting 26,756 cases on the day and taking its overall tally to 7.5 lakh. Only Delhi has reported more cases than Bengaluru in a day (28,395 on April 20 and 27,047 on April 30). Maharashtra took 214 days to reach 15 lakh cases, Karnataka 417 and Kerala 416 days.

Several small hospitals in the city are grappling with a staff shortage of 50 per cent or more amid an alarming Covid-19 surge. Infections among healthcare workers and a spate of resignations in recent weeks have affected the staff strength. The workload of those still on the job has increased drastically, with many toiling for 12 to 14 hours daily, said operation heads of hospitals. Even some big medical facilities are facing the problem, according to the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes’ Association (PHANA). Recently, Dr Devi Shetty, the chairman and founder of Narayana Health, warned of an impending crisis: “The next headlines from India will be on the severe shortage of doctors, nurses and frontline workers.”

A total of 394 Covid-19 patients died within 48 hours of hospitalisation between April 20 and 29 in Karnataka. Medical experts working with the state government say system failures — lack of triaging, beds and some key drugs — and delay by patients to seek help had played a part in the deaths. Of the 394 patients, 164 passed away on the day of admission and 230 the next day. Together, they accounted for 21 per cent of the 1,809 Covid-19 deaths that occurred in the 10-day period.

A 26-year-old woman was frantically dialling Covid helpline numbers from a speeding ambulance that criss-crossed Bengaluru on Thursday night carrying her severely ill 64-year-old businessman-father and 57-year-old mother, both Covid patients. The elderly man was gasping for air as his oxygen saturation level had dipped to 75, while the mother’s condition was no better. After having struggled for two days to get her parents hospital beds, the RT Nagar resident had managed to get them stretchered into the ambulance at 6pm and set out in search of beds.

Despite the IT capital accounting for majority of cases, 18 other districts have reported a positivity rate of over 10%, a 7-day average up to April 29 shows. Kodagu has the highest positivity rate (22.4%). While the severity may not be apparent from the absolute number of cases, especially juxtaposed with Bengaluru’s soaring numbers, the positivity rate is a key indicator of the spread of virus.