BENGALURU: The increase in the number of Covid-19 cases is causing concerns of increasing the burden on health care facilities in the state. Experts are now asking the state government to identify Covid-19 specific wards, allow all private hospitals to restart treating Covid and also prep up the ICU's.
Karnataka is listed as one among the eight states/Union territories where the number of daily new Covid-19 cases has been showing an upward trend. The other states are Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.
In the last seven days, till Monday evening, Bengaluru urban has reported 3524 covid cases and 20 deaths, Mysuru 290, 2 deaths; Dakshina Kannada 255, Kalburgi 248 1 and Tumkuru 238 1 and Bengaluru rural 205 cases. According to the members of the Technical Advisory Committee say that "the increase in the number of cases shows that this is an onset of second wave and it's time that we improve from the lessons learnt from the first wave. If we don't take precautions then we are worried that we may reach the dangerous state of highest peak Karnataka saw in the month of July-August," said Dr CN Manjunath, Member TAC and Director, Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.
In the TAC meeting held on Monday, it was suggested that the state government should now look to increase the vaccination drive in the areas where the sero survey has shown low prevalance of immunity. Also,experts have insisted on increase in testing and contact tracing in these areas.
Speaking to TNIE, Dr Anant Bhan, Researcher, Bio Medical expert said, the number of cases is rising in many parts of India, and it is a warning sign. "we need to work on preventing a further increase. At the same time, learning from last year, we should prime our health system and facilities for an increase in number of Covid 19 admissions," he said.
He explained further that the state government needs to ensure that adequate care is available for both covid 19 and non covid 19 conditions. This involves looping in private faciliteis as required to ensure patients do not need to run around to access care. "However, governance and regulation of pricing and treatment regimens would be crucial," he said.
The experts believe that there is a false sense of security set in due to the recent fall in the number of cases. "An awareness needs to be created that the covid 19 is still here and contact tracing of patients have to be speedened up along with proper home quarantine for those with mild symptoms," said Dr Manjunath.
The state government is now also taking stock of how many oxygen beds, ICU beds, wards are available in the state and also they will soon talk to private hospitals association to ensure that they are ready to handle surge in number of cases.