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Deputy CM says Karnataka should brace itself for 1 lakh COVID-19 cases


Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, March 25, 2020:  Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for IT and Biotechnology CN Ashwath Narayan has said that the state should brace itself for around one lakh cases of the novel coronavirus in the near future.

Answering queries about the spread of COVID-19 in the Karnataka Legislative Council, DCM Ashwath Narayan said that the state is in the process of setting up 20,000 beds across various districts. The government is also procuring 2,000 ventilators, he said. “Isolation hospitals will be set up in all districts and they have been set up in nine districts already. About 20,000 hotel rooms will be taken to establish quarantine facilities,” he said.

Narayan said that 1000 ventilators have already been ordered in addition to the 300 ventilators that the government presently has. Further, private hospitals have assured that they will give 100 ventilators to the government, along with Infosys Limited promising to buy 100 more.

As for masks, the state government has ordered 10 lakh three-layered ones, five lakh N95 masks and 10 lakh personal protection kits, DCM Ashwath Narayan informed.

Earlier on Monday, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar had said that the government was in the process of procuring 1000 ventilators and 5 lakh PPE kits. Deputy CM Ashwath Narayan on Tuesday said that the state would procure double the amount.

There is also the anxiety that the state does not have enough medication to treat the patients who come in with COVID-19. Ashwath Narayan further said in the Assembly that there was not enough hydroxychloroquin, an anti-malarial drug, which the Indian Council of Medical Research has said can be used to treat patients of COVID-19, and that they are trying to procure it.

The Deputy Chief Minister added that the treatment for the Novel Coronavirus would be provided in isolation facilities so as to prevent transmission and spread of the disease.

Doctors will be mobilized for examinations and for manning the tents that will be set up for this purpose, he added.

He also announced the setting up of fever clinics aimed at preventing crowding at hospitals, and facilitating hospitalization based on referrals. These will be at the many hotel rooms that the state has procured specifically for the isolation of COVID-19 cases.

Further, the corona task force in Karnataka has also estimated worrying numbers of COVID-19 positive cases in the state for the coming days, The New Indian Express reported on Wednesday. The task force estimates that the state will see around 80,000 CIVD-19 patients, of whom 12,000 will need hospitalisation; 9,600 will need to be in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and 4,800 will need respiratory support on ventilators. For the city of Bengaluru alone, the task force is expecting 16,000 patients. Of these, 2400, 2000 and 1000 will need hospitalisation, ICU care and ventilators respectively, the task force said.


Courtesy:The News Minute