450 more hospital beds to be added up in Karnataka's Kolara

To better the COVID management in the government hospitals in Karnataka's Kolara district, 300 more oxygenated beds, and 150 ICU beds will be added up, State Corona Task Force Head and Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwatha Narayana, informed on Tuesday.

Speaking after reviewing the COVID care situation in the district through a virtual platform, with the representatives of the district and District Commissioner, he said, steps would be taken to provide the required infrastructure for the district hospital (SNR Hospital) and other government hospitals of the district.

At present, there is no shortage of oxygen in the district. But to prepare for any situation in the future, a 6000-litre oxygen storage facility and an oxygen generation plant of 1000 litre/minute capacity will be set up in SNR hospital, he told.

Giving the facts and figures, he pointed out, "there are 700 oxygenated beds in the district and out of which 190 beds are ICU beds with/without ventilators. In addition to this 700 non-oxygenated beds. This counts to a total of 1400 beds in the district. As for as the COVID cases are concerned, as of Monday (May 3rd), the district has 3600 active cases. Among these normally 10% of them need hospitalization and the remaining 3000 require home isolation."

Providing home isolation kits, Immediate testing, giving results within 24 hours after the sample collection, augmenting the helpline facility, care for non-COVID patients will be streamlined on a priority basis, he told.

The huge challenge lies in the district of Bengaluru and a few other districts such as Kalaburgi, Mysuru, Tumakuru also have a higher number of cases, he replied to a query by reporters.

The supply of oxygen to the state has been increased from 100 MT/day to 850 MT/day. But, as the demand for oxygen is still increasing the arrangements will be made to increase its supply, he told.

Expressing confidence about handling the situation, he said, "The officials have been directed to streamline the helpline 1912 system, automate the bed allocation procedure, and to create an Integrated Index App within 2 days. These steps will certainly help to improve the system."

Representatives of the Kolara district, Ramesh Kumar, S.N.Narayana Swamy, Srinivasa Gowda, Nanjegowda, Nazeer Ahammed, and Roopa Shashidhar urged the task force head to address the issues in a time-bound manner. Member of Parliament S.N.Muniswamy was also present.

( With inputs from ANI )