The Belagavi district administration is employing a multi-pronged strategy for the better management of COVID-19.
One of the steps is to increase the number of beds in the district designated COVID-19 hospital. The number of beds has been increased to 350 from 200.
As this reduced the number of beds for non-COVID-19 patients by 150, officials decided to move such patients to private hospitals and offered to pay for their expenses. These expenses will be paid either under Arogya Karnataka or Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojana health schemes.
The State government is also requisitioning beds from private hospitals.
“Some hospitals have volunteered to set up COVID-19 wards on their premises. If that is not enough, we will issue orders requisitioning some beds,” a senior officer said.
Private hospitals
“The Epidemic Diseases Act empowers Deputy Commissioners to take over private hospitals that do not follow rules issued by the government from time to time. More over, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has asked hospitals to set aside 50 % of their beds for COVID-19 patients. Either they can admit them by themselves or they can take in patients sent by the government,” he said.
40 beds
Deputy Commissioner M.G. Hiremath has decided to reserve 40 beds in the Cantonment hospital for doctors and other staff on COVID-19 duty.
A COVID-19 care centre would be set up for COVID Warriors, he told The Hindu.
Mr. Hiremath has also spoken to the authorities at the Employee State Insurance hospital and the military hospital in Ganeshpur to accommodate COVID-19 patients.
Mr. Hiremath and others inspected the facilities at the ESI hospital and the military hospital on Sunday.
Rapid antigen test
Mr. Hiremath said that Belagavi district would use rapid antigen testing kits for random COVID-19 testing. “We are getting a 1,000 kits in the first phase. We will seek more in the second phase depending on the success and ease of use of these kits,” he said.
Random testing is being carried out in suspected areas and high risk areas. This will run parallel with the process of contact tracing and testing, he said.
