BENGALURU: Stressing on early detection and treatment of patients, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Thursday said that elderly people with Covid- 19 symptoms and even those with Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) symptoms should visit fever clinics immediately.
He said this was important as early detection would mean early commencement of treatment and higher chance of recovery. In this endeavour, the minister said 800 teams will be formed under BBMP jurisdiction to conduct door-to-door survey in Bengaluru, and urged citizens to cooperate with the teams as it would facilitate early detection and treatment.
These teams have been tasked to visit every house in BBMP limits to look for people with Covid-19 or ILI symptoms. Sudhakar explained: “In many cases, people are coming to hospital at a very advanced stage of infection. Effective treatment is possible only if it starts at an early stage. Elderly people with symptoms and those with ILI must visit fever clinics immediately.” He also said the state government is planning to convert large stadiums like Kanteerava Stadium into quarantine centres, indicating that the government is expecting a spike in Covid- 19 patients in the coming days.
On a more reassuring note, he pointed out that so far, 50% of the cases in Bengaluru had recovered and 97% of the remaining cases were asymptomatic. Only 3% of the cases were undergoing special treatment. On the issue of containment zones, Sudhakar pointed out that “earlier, the entire ward or one kilometre area surrounding an infected person’s house was considered a containment zone. Now, containment zone is restricted to the house of the infected person.
So even if we have 60 containment zones in a city with 1.2 crore population, it is not something to panic about.” Sudhakar also said that hospitals for treatment of patients with non-Covid ailments will be opened. “Since non-corona patients are struggling to get treatment, we have decided to open hospitals in a phased manner. Initially, Bowring Hospital will be opened,” he said.