Intensifying efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, a special meeting of the State Cabinet on Wednesday announced a slew of measures, including constituting a high-level task force to review the situation on a daily basis and extending restrictions on mass gatherings till March 31.
The Cabinet also announced ₹200 crore to fund the precautionary measures, said Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, briefing the Legislative Assembly about the decisions taken by the Cabinet. Revenue Minister R. Ashok announced in the Legislative Council that an additional sum of ₹184 crore would be used from the NDRF funds.
On the composition of the task force, the Chief Minister said that it would be led by Health Minister B. Sriramulu and have Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan, Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, and Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar.
The task force will meet daily to review the situation and decide on immediate and long-term measures to be taken to keep the disease at bay, Mr. Yediyurappa explained. It would also issue health bulletins in the morning and evening every day, he said.
Appeal to people
Mr. Sudhakar, while reiterating that public programmes had been cancelled in the State, appealed to people to ensure that even private functions like marriages do not see congregation of more than 100 to 150 persons. He asked elected representatives to desist from attending mass gatherings to send out a message.
Watch | Soap or sanitiser? Which works better?
He said that people had responded positively by staying indoors. “It is not possible to check the spread of the disease through legislation alone. People’s co-operation is a must,” he said.
Presently, the State, which stands fourth in the country in terms of cases testing positive for COVID-19, has five laboratories for conducting clinical tests. The government was in the process of setting up regional centres of the labs in Hubbali and Mangaluru, but was also considering setting up separate labs in its medical colleges in the districts, Mr. Sudhakar said.
Hands of quarantined persons to be stamped
Medical Education Minister S. Sudhakar said that the Cabinet had decided to quarantine all those returning from foreign countries for 15 days. The quarantined persons will be stamped on their hands to indicate that they have been quarantined, he said.
The authorities will use budget hotels and resorts near the Kempegowda International Airport, besides hospitals, at Devanahalli for compulsory quarantining of those returning from abroad, he said.
