BENGALURU: Karnataka has written to the centre and also sought permission from Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Sadananda Gowda to start local production of Remdesivir drug meant to treat COVID-19 cases.
At a press meet on Tuesday, Minister for Medical Education, Dr K Sudhakar said," Remdesivir is used for moderate to severe COVID-19 cases. We have sought permission from centre and Sadananda Gowda as we are seeing positive results of it, with patients recovering. Jubilant factory in Nanjangud has got approvals to manufacture it."
He said that a committee will also be formed to study what drugs, treatment, inventions are being resorted to worldwide for COVID-19 treatment and they will recommend the same for Karnataka.
Sudhakar admitted that BBMP was struggling to conduct contact tracing of patients as numbers are too large and the task is physically complex. "We are trying our best but there are bottlenecks and shortcomings. We will rope in citizens and NGOs for contact tracing. The surge in cases is primarily because of inter-state travellers. I agree that out tracing is not 100 percent," he admitted.
When asked about reports of private hospitals and government hospitals denying treatment to COVID-19 patients, he said that a central monitoring and bed allotment system headed by senior IAS officers will
be launched in a few days to resolve the problem.
"Private hospitals are not giving out beds as planned. A meeting will be held with them tommorow along with Revenue Minister Ashok, Yelahanka MLA SR Vishwanath and Chief Secretary Vijay Bhaskar to sort
out the issue," he added.
He shared that the central team visited the state to oversee COVID-19 operations and recommended use of antigen testing, enforcement of containment zones, reverse isolation for those above 60 even if they do not have COVID-19 and isolation of those from slum areas in COVID care centres as was done in Dharavi slum in Mumbai.
He said that frontline workers are fatigued and therefore, citizens, especially youngsters must come forward to help the state in hospitals, CCCs, helplines and surveillance and that an app would be launched for them to register as volunteers.
He said that we need to adopt the 4 Cs- Confidence, collaboration, communication and compassion. "The state is attempting to bring its mortality rate below 1 percent with a tele-ICU facility," he informed.