BENGALURU: The Karnataka Health Department has brought back the home isolation rule for those who test positive for Covid-19. The State recorded two deaths and 74 positive cases on Tuesday.
A seven-day home isolation is a must for positive patients and they will be monitored by health officials. Also, parents have been advised not to send their children suffering from cold or cough to schools. Precautionary vaccines will be administered to senior citizens and those with comorbidities. These were among the major decisions taken at the first meeting of the cabinet sub-committee on Covid-19.
Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil, Higher Education Minister MC Sudhakar, top health officials and members of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) attended the meeting after detection of 34 cases of the new Covid-19 variant, JN.1 in the State.
“Health officials will visit the homes of Covid-19 patients. They will test the patients and also their family members if they are symptomatic,” said Gundu Rao. Government and private employees in home isolation should be given mandatory casual leave. Those being treated in hospitals should be given special leave, he added.
Children suffering from cold, coughs and fever should stay at home. If required, they should get tested, he said. He said that sewage surveillance in cities such as Bengaluru and Mangaluru will be taken up.
464 active Covid-19 cases in Karnataka
The Indian Institute of Science and Indian Statistical Institute will be asked to come up with a Covid-19 prediction model.
Stating that guidelines for audit of deaths have been issued, Gundu Rao said seven deaths have been reported in the State. Of them, three tested JN.1 positive.
He said 30,000 vaccine doses will be procured with a special focus on senior citizens and immunocompromised persons. Detailed Covid-19 guidelines will be issued by the Health Department soon.