MANGALURU: Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai told the Dakshina Kannada district administration to reduce the positivity rate or get ready to face another lockdown.
Chairing a review meeting on the Covid-19 situation on Thursday, the CM directed the district administration to reduce the number of home isolation cases, and instead shift patients to Covid care centres (CCC).
“I don’t want to impose a lockdown again and trouble people. Instead, I believe that prevention is better than cure. Tracking and tracing should be made more efficient. The district should be prepared with all medical infrastructure including beds, oxygen and ICUs. The district should make rural task forces more effective, and more emphasis should be given for scientific triaging, and thereby shifting more cases to CCCs, and also declare micro containment areas when infected people are allowed to remain in home isolation. This will prevent the spread of the virus,” the CM said.
“Dakshina Kannada has more commercial activities compared to other districts, and is known for educational institutions, coastal activities as well as international connectivity, and shares its borders with Kerala. All restrictions in place at the border with Kerala should continue, and surveillance should be increased from two shifts to three, through the health and police departments,” the CM said.
“The health department should visit infected people in home isolation, twice a day, and check their temperature and oxygen levels. Check their social condition, to ensure whether they have separate bathrooms and bedrooms. Emphasis should be given to the upkeep of CCCs, by keeping them clean, and providing all the necessary infrastructure. Doctors, nurses and other required staff should visit CCCs regularly. Resume all measures that were in place when the district’s Covid numbers were at its peak during the second wave,” Bommai said.
“We have increased the capacity of oxygen manufacturing in the state. We have also improved the logistics for the supply of oxygen. We have avoided the system of diverting the quota of oxygen allotted to one district to another. In any eventuality, not only in Mangaluru, but in the entire state, there will be no oxygen crisis in future,” the CM said.
Health minister K Sudhakar said the positivity rate being above 4% is alarming for the district. The state average is below 1.7%, but in Dakshina Kannada it is above 4%, he added.
DC Rajendra said that the district has reported 8,063 positive cases after conducting 2,00,412 RT-PCR tests in the last four weeks from July 14. While the district recorded 3.1% positivity rate in the first week, it was 3.7% in the second week, 5.1% in the third week and 4% in the fourth week. The district has recorded an average test positivity rate of 4%, he added.
