Prime Minister holds Video Conference with CMs of various states to review Covid-19 situation; Medical Education Minister Dr.K.Sudhakar briefs PM about state’s covid management
Bengaluru August 11 Tuesday: Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a video conference with the Chief Ministers of 10 states on Tuesday to review the Covid situation. Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar briefed PM about state’s Covid management as Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa continues to be in home isolation post recovery from Covid-19. DCM Dr.Ashwath Narayan and Chief Secretary T.M.Vijay Bhaskar were present during the VC.
Minister Sudhakar gave a detailed report of the covid-19 condition prevailing in the state and explained the measures taken by the Karnataka government to combat it. He requested the centre to set new guidelines to utilize final year MBBS and degree students for Covid duties, to ensure adequate supply of trained manpower. He also requested to increase 10,000 graduate and 2,000 MBBS seats.
PM suggested state governments to aim at reducing the fatality rate to 1% and instructed to ensure contact tracing upto 70% to control the spread of virus efficiently. PM also said that 80% of the cases in India exist in 10 states and these states need to undertake drastic steps to defeat the pandemic. Primary contacts of the infected persons should be traced within 72 hours, PM said during the video conference.
Minister Sudhakar spoke to the media post Video conference and explained the points discussed in the video conference.
Highlights of his press brief
• The booth level teams have been formed to do multiple tasks like surveillance, tracing, tracking and to spread awareness by emphasizing on quick and complete contact tracing.
• Testing has been ramped up from 20,000 tests per day to nearly 50,000
now. It is planned to be increased to 75,000 with a good mix of RTPCR
& Rapid antigen tests. There are 100 ICMR approved labs in the state.
• 1300 mobile testing teams have been deployed by the government to
carry out field testing in containment & buffer zones by Rapid antigen
(and when needed by RT-PCR kits).
• Those who are asymptomatic & mildly symptomatic with no underlying
medical condition and having proper infrastructure at home are kept in
Home Isolation. They are being effectively monitored through telemonitoring & home visits by health teams.
• The State has capitalized on the strong presence of private health care
providers including 43 private medical colleges and 17 government
medical colleges; 50% of beds in Private hospitals across various
categories viz. oxygen supported, HDU, ICU (with or without ventilators)
have been reserved for government referred Covid patients.
• A centralized Hospital bed management system transparently allocates &
shows the availability of vacant beds. Private & Community managed Covid Care Centers have also been facilitated.
• Government of Karnataka is paying for testing and treatment of all patients including those referred to private hospitals also. Novel therapy like Remdesivir is also given to government referred patients in private hospitals. Plasma bank has been established and it has been taken up in a systematic manner.
• It is noteworthy that the state has established a 10,100 beds capacity Covid Care Centre at Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) in addition to nearly 1,04,000 beds in other Covid care centers acorss the state.
• State realizes the importance of Medical oxygen in treating mild & moderately symptomatic patients. By way of quick execution, it has added 1600 Oxygen supported beds to the already existing 5500 Oxygen beds in Public Health Institutions.
• Another 5000 Beds will be available by end of August. Totally more than 20000 oxygenated beds will be available by September end. Oxygen plants are being setup in major hospitals.
• State has more than doubled its capacity of ambulances from 800 to 2000 to transport Covid-19 and other patients.
Action against violators
• Those violating norms of social distancing and masks have been penalized. 2,05,029 cases have been booked with a fine collection of Rs. 6.65 Crore.
• 5.7 lakh persons in Home Quarantine have been warned while 3246 persons have been moved from Home Quarantine to Institution Quarantine due to repeated violations. 5821 FIRs have been filed for quarantine violations.
• More than 12000 violators have been arrested and 1,12,000 vehicles have been seized. We are focusing on reducing the number of deaths. Towards this end, we have increased testing, decreased delays between collection of samples and uploading of results, reduced shifting time from home to hospital.
• At the hospital, we have been conducting tele-ICU and training doctors and drawing upon death audits for better clinical management. A new treatment protocol is being implemented. I am glad to inform you that the case fatality rate has reduced from 2.1 in July to 1.8 in August.
• With 182354 total cases out of which 79908 are active cases, the state is well prepared to tackle the emerging situation with 1.14 lakh Covid Care Centre beds, 20000 general beds, 8000 Oxygen supported beds, 3000 ICU beds and 1500 ICU beds with ventilators. We want to achieve the right balance of boosting economy with control of Covid-19 infection and seek your valuable guidance in this endeavor.
• We are grateful to the Hon’ble Prime Minister for providing 2025 ventilators to the state.
• Under BBMP health care all the PHCs and national programmes are integrated and networked for integrated data management to effectively combact the pandemic.
• More than 17 biotech products have been extremely helpful in containing the diseases.
Requests:
• Start final and pre-final Paramedical and medical under graduates course classes so that they can be utilized for covid related activities.
• Permission to increase the 10,000 UG & 2,000 PG seats every year in medical colleges.
• Issue guidelines for compulsory service of Undergraduate & Post graduate students after the completion of course which will enable us to enhance the manpower pool.
• Facilitate the availability of Liquid oxygen plants.
• Emphasizing more on mandatory Health Care Research in medical institutions.