BENGALURU: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who was diagnosed asymptomatic for Covid-19 and is currently undergoing treatment at Manipal Hospital on Old Airport Road, on Tuesday held a review meeting with officials via an online platform. The CM discussed about the availability of ventilators beds in the state from the 11th floor VVIP suite of the hospital.
Officers from the Health and Family Welfare Department informed him that the state has received 681 ventilators from the Union Government under the PM-CARES fund. “The number of ventilator beds have increased by 335 during last one week in the state. A total of 166 beds have been added in Bengaluru alone. The remaining 346 ventilators will be installed by the end of this week,’’ the CM’s secretariat said.
Another set of 1,279 ventilators, allotted to Karnataka, will be handed over later this month and the CM directed that all of these should be installed as soon as they are received. On the need for more staff to ensure the ventilators are running, the CM directed that all the necessary appointments be made immediately, specially anaesthetics, paramedics, technical and nursing staff. The CM also suggested that the requests of private hospitals in Bengaluru for ventilators be considered on a temporary basis, strictly for Covid-19 purposes.