Karnataka to step up tracing efforts after meeting with PM Narendra Modi

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The state government on Tuesday said it will beef up its contact tracing system, which is in shambles, to identify Covid-19 patient contacts within 72 hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised its importance in reining in the pandemic.

“The PM stressed on this very clearly,” Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar told reporters after briefing Modi on the state’s Covid-19 situation via video conference along with Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan.

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“The PM said that the primary and secondary contacts of a Covid-19 person should be traced within 72 hours. We have discussed this and it will be done here,” he said.

Sudhakar’s confidence notwithstanding, the state has an uphill task, considering that the contact tracing, where the state excelled once, has virtually collapsed.

In June, Karnataka’s per-patient contact tracing touched 47. But today, this figure has fallen to a single digit.

In the last two weeks, the highest number of contacts traced per patient was in Davangere at 10.1, followed by Dharwad (7.6) and Chamarajanagar (6.2). In Bengaluru, on an average 5.2 contacts are being traced for a patient, according to data from the state war room.

Apparently, contact tracing took a beating due to shortage of staff.

According to Sudhakar, Modi also stressed the need to bring down the Covid-19 mortality rate to under 1%. “Mortality rate is a big challenge the world over. India’s mortality rate is 1.99%, Karnataka’s is 1.8% and in Bengaluru, it is 1.7%,” he said.

Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on August 11

As on Tuesday, the state has 79,606 active cases with 1.05 lakh discharges and 3,398 deaths.

The government informed the PM that the state will have 20,000 beds with oxygen facilities by the end of September. “We have gone from 20,000 tests to 50,000 tests. We told the PM that we will reach 75,000 tests in the coming days,” Sudhakar said.

During the video conference, some chief ministers sought financial assistance under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), but Karnataka did not ask for money. “Instead, we asked for help in setting up liquid oxygen manufacturing units. There’s a demand for liquid oxygen from all states, so the supply is less,” Sudhakar said.

Karnataka also made a strong pitch to increase the number of medical seats, a demand that was seconded by Telangana. “Currently, we have 10,000 undergraduate and 2,000 postgraduate seats. We told the Centre that the number of seats should be doubled, not only for Covid-19, but to be able to deal with any public health emergency in the future,” Sudhakar said.

The government sought the Centre’s permission to start classes for final year medical and paramedical students “so they can be engaged in Covid-related activities”. Also, the Centre was asked to amend the law to make one-year rural service mandatory for medical graduates.