TUMAKURU: With COVID-19 cases surging in the district, the authorities are going all out to ramp up the healthcare infrastructure including the number of beds for patients. Also, two more laboratories for testing will be coming up at Siddhartha and Sridevi Medical Colleges in a week's time and in addition to the 21 ventilators in place, the government will supply 32 more in a week.
As private hospitals have to reserve fifty percent of their beds for COVID-19 cases, a conglomeration of fourteen hospitals has been preparing to set up two facilities -- one at Ashwini Hospital and another at Surya Hospital with about 300 more beds.
"We are setting up a 150-bed facility at Ashwini Hospital that will be open for admission from Monday. Depending on the patients' needs, they can be admitted to general wards or deluxe," said Pratap, CEO and MD of Abhaya Services that has taken the contract at Ashwini Hospital.
Already, the administration has 2000 beds at COVID-19 Care Centres, 200 at the designated hospital, and fifty each at all the government hospitals in the taluk level. "People with symptoms must come for the tests which are free of cost. All the 144 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in ten taluks have been provided with the rapid antigen test," deputy commissioner, Dr K Rakesh Kumar, told The New Indian Express.
The mortality rate has been low except for the co-morbid cases who were admitted to the hospital late, he said. "The rate of positivity has also been at around 12 percent and the rate of
recovery has been over 55 percent. But we should be on the alert as economic activities have started post-Unlock-3. A number of people are commuting to Bengaluru especially those working with banks and they are vulnerable," he explained.
He clarified that only if beds are not available in government facilities would cases be referred to private hospitals. Out of 42,382 tests conducted in the district, 37,487 were found to be negative for the virus. 4,562 people are under surveillance including 2,916 primary and 1,646 secondary contacts of positive cases.
Four media persons among 69 new cases
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the district reported as many as 69 new cases including four media persons taking the tally to 2,278. With two more deaths, the toll rose to 67. As many as 1,265 got discharged, including sixty-five on Thursday, as against the 946 active cases that have been under treatment.