The newly opened District Hospital building on KRS Road here is the first full-fledged COVID-19 hospital in Mysuru and the entire medical team handling the suspected and positive cases would be moved to the new premises.
The infrastructure of the yet-to-become-functional hospital is being made use in view of the health emergency. In this time of crisis, it will be function as a 150-bed COVID-19 hospital.
Addressing presspersons here on Monday, Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar said the two positive cases would be shifted out of K.R. Hospital to the COVID-19 facility on KRS Road.
“We have also identified another hospital which can also be designated as COVID-19 hospital and its infrastructure would be used in case of an emergency. Some private hospitals have also been identified for setting aside more number of beds for handling the cases. Many doctors doing private practice here have come forward to assist the administration in handling the emergency,” said Mr. Sankar.
The hospital-wise data on the infrastructure available in Mysuru was being prepared for handling the situation in case of more number of cases. The human resource and infrastructure in hospitals available is being examined. For the next two weeks, the administration is fully prepared for handling the situation and an inventory of private hospitals had been made.
Responding to questions on procuring more ventilators, Mr. Sankar said the district administration had talks with a medical equipment manufacturing company based in Mysuru for supplying ventilators to the hospitals. The Health Minister had a video conference on the issue and the government was ready to ensure clearances from the customs for procuring components essential for manufacturing ventilators.
Mysuru may immediately need about 20 ventilators, he said and added that a company in Mysuru had also started producing sanitisers. The Deputy Commissioner warned of stopping even takeaway foods if the public did not cooperate with the measures taken on humanitarian grounds and failed to follow the advice for containing the virus spread. Overcrowding was in contravention of the directives, he said. To a query, Mr. Sankar said all non-essential services, including courier service, stand banned and there should not be any confusion on this matter.
However, all government offices will function as usual with no or limited public services. Barring school and college teachers for whom holiday had been declared, the remaining government staff will attend to their duties as usual, he clarified.
Police Commissioner Chandragupta, Superintendent of Police C.B. Ryshyanth, and MCC Commissioner Gurudatta Hegde were present.
