As Karnataka reported over 1,000 COVID-19 cases for the second consecutive day on Monday, the State government has asked medical and paramedical staff to be mentally prepared for the long haul. It has asked them to be ready to deal with the pandemic for the next six months.
With cases expected to increase further in July and August, the government has also planned to impose “more stringent measures”, including the closure of public parks, after July 5. Already, the government has decided to impose lockdowns on all Sundays in the coming month. Briefing the government’s decisions after a meeting at the Secretariat, Revenue Minister R. Ashok, who is also in-charge of handling COVID-19 for Bengaluru, said, “The medical fraternity should be mentally prepared to continue this work for the next six months”.
A decision had been taken to hike salaries of medical and paramedical staff who directly deal with patients wearing PPE kits, he added.
However, Mr Ashok said that there was no need to panic as the numbers were still below other metros in the country and measures were being put in place to brace for the situation.
In order to avoid panic and help the government keep tabs, testing centres and private hospitals have been directed to upload the results first in ICMR and BBMP portals, instead of directly informing people about them testing positive, he said.
Based on the report, BBMP ward health officials would visit houses of reported cases and make arrangements to shift people to hospitals concerned or care centres. “The testing centres should not make calls directly to the people,” he said. All public hospitals have been told to appoint public relations officers to handle phone calls.
