Karnataka issues notification for formation of District Level COVID Technical Expert panels

BENGALURU: The Karnataka government on Monday issued a notification for formation of District Level COVID-19 Technical Expert Committees (TEC) for providing technical guidance to the district administrations.

Signed by Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Jawaid Akhtar, TEC has been constituted based on the recommendation of the state Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) from the experiences of two waves of COVID-19 pandemic and as the third wave is anticipated by the experts in October-November 2021.

The TEC shall pursue the guidelines issued by Government of India and Karnataka, ICMR, AllMS, New Delhi, WHO and other organisations on a regular basis, and will regularly interact with the State TAC and function under its overall guidance.

The TEC shall review the data at the district level and compare it with other districts, state, and national level on a continual basis, and shall help the district administration by using the information obtained locally and facilitate public health actions and containment measures.

The TEC shall guide the district administration to make decisions that are in consonance with guidelines of the state and the country, it added.

The TEC shall consist of Senior Specialists in Public Health/ Comm.

Medicine, District Surveillance Officer (DSO), Senior Pulmonologist ,Senior Physician/ intensivist, Senior Pediatrician, Senior Obstetrician, Senior Microbiologist, Surveillance Medical Officer-WHO, and Senior Ayush Physician.

The Committee will have a District Health and Family Welfare Officer and District Surgeon as special invitees.

According to the notification, the Committee shall meet on a regular basis, at least fortnightly, and based on the need may meet more frequently, and a copy of the proceedings shall be sent to Commissioner, Health and Family Welfare Services, Bengaluru through Deputy Commissioner.

The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) constituted at the State level will lay down the activities to be taken up and will handhold the District TECs in their functioning.

The state reported 1,065 new COVID-19 cases and 28 deaths on Monday, taking the total number of infections to 29,30,529 and the toll to 37,007.

The day also saw 1,486 discharges, taking the total number of recoveries in the state so far to 28,71,448.

Bengaluru Urban accounted for 270 cases out of the total number and saw 378 discharges and four deaths.

The total number of active cases in the state is 22,048.

While the positivity rate for the day stood at 0.93 per cent, the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) was 2.62 per cent.

Out of the 28 deaths, five are from Dakshina Kannada, Bengaluru Urban and Mysuru (4 each), Hassana and Kodagu (3 each), Chitradurga, Kolar and Uttara Kannada (2 each), followed by others.

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Dakshina Kannada accounted for 284, Bengaluru Urban 270, Udupi 107, Mysuru 63, followed by others.

Bengaluru Urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 12,33,172, followed by Mysuru 1,74,679 and Tumakuru 1,18,659.

Among discharges too, Bengaluru Urban was on top with 12,09,176, followed by Mysuru 1,71,209 and Tumakuru 1,16,844.

Cumulatively a total of 4,10,25,095 samples have been tested in the state so far, out of which 1,13,580 were done on Monday alone.