Govt residential schools, hostels to be used as quarantine centres in Karnataka

In order to ensure adequate infrastructure to handle the COVID-19 pandemic, the State government has allowed residential schools and hostels of the social welfare department to be used as quarantine facilities.

Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol, who also handles the social welfare portfolio, said on Friday that the schools were suitable for quarantining COVID-19 patients as they were located away from the densely populated areas.

"Holidays are declared for students already and all residential schools are well-equipped with separate rooms, kitchen, toilets, library and other basic facilities," he said.

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Wherever required, these schools can be converted into quarantine centers without any expense and the district authorities can take a call on the matter, he said.

There are some 3,000 social welfare hostels and 800 residential schools that are run by the Karnataka Residential Educational Institutions Society (KREIS).

This is among the several measures initiated by the State government, after it announced a lockdown from March 24 - before the 21-day nationwide lockdown kicked in from March 26. Apart from identifying the district hospitals to exclusively treat COVID-19 cases, fever clinics and helplines have been setup to detect and prevent the spread of the viral disease.