No home isolation needed for COVID patients at villages and urban slums: Karnataka deputy CM

BENGALURU: To bring down the mortality rate by avoiding late reporting to hospitals, the Karnataka government on Saturday decided to do away with home isolation for COVID patients at villages and slum areas in cities.

"This is to ensure that they get admitted mandatorily at COVID Care Centres (CCCs)," Deputy Chief Minister and State Covid Task Force Chairman Dr CN Ashwath Narayan told reporters after the task force meeting, which was also attended by Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar and senior officials.

In rural areas, CCCs will be set up at primary health centres and deputy commissioners will be entrusted with the responsibility of making arrangements for isolation and treatment also at places like hostels, he said. Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) will be conducted at the doorsteps of people in hotspots, he added.

The task force decided that 100 ICU beds will be made available in every district hospital; 100 oxygenated beds, including 25 ICU beds, at taluk hospitals and 10 oxygenated beds at PHCs. The task force took a decision to purchase 1,000 oxygen utility regulatory devices developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Of them, 900 will be the automatic model which costs Rs 10,000 each and 100 will be the manual model that is priced at Rs 6,000 each. The DyCM said that oxygen bottling plants will be set up in nine districts and oxygen generators of 200-300 litre/minute at community health centres.