Coronavirus: Govt medical colleges in Karnataka to be 'war rooms', says K Sudhakar

A day after seventh COVID-19 case was confirmed in Karnataka, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar addressed the media and said a total of 46 primary contacts and 170 secondary contacts of the daughter of the Kalaburagi casualty were identified.

MVJ Medical College and East Point Medical College are some of the other quarantine centres identified by the state health department apart from Akash Institute of Medical Sciences. "A lot of IT-BT companies have obliged and have asked their employees to work from home. Request more companies to come forward and oblige," Sudhakar said.

"An emegency meeting of all government medical colleges in Karnataka was called for this morning. All district medical colleges will act as war rooms to contain COVID-19," he said.

"We have been under a lot of pressure to set up testing labs apart from two in Bengaluru and three others across the state. COVID-19 testing labs are to be set up in Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Mangaluru and Shivamogga. These labs will be set up in government medical colleges. Labs are already there in Hassan, Shivamogga and Mysuru," he said.

Help desks will be set up in all medical colleges. "All government medical colleges and attached hospitals with 150-250 beds to have COVID-19 wards along with ICUs and ventillators. These wards are to be set up in a separate isolated floor with separate entry and exit points," he said.

Additional human resources are to be provided to these medical colleges. "Every day a video conference will be held with district officials from headquarters in Bengaluru. We will provide them with whatever number of staff they require," he said.

If the situation worsens, all government and private establishments that can be converted into hospitals are being identified. Frontline health workers who are screening and treating patients are 'warriors', he said. Government is mulling on providing them financial support. Meanwhile, the one-month-old baby of the woman who tested positive in Kalaburagi has tested negative.

"According to the World Health Organisation there are four Cs - Case, Cluster, Community and Country. At the moment, the transmission in Karnataka is between Case and Cluster. We wish to contain it there," he said.

While there are government medical colleges in only 17 districts, a meeting with owners of private institutions has been called for in the afternoon by Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Karnataka.