Health and Family Welfare Minister B. Sriramulu told Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan that the State had identified 10 COVID-19 hotspot districts for the implementation of intense monitoring and preventive measures.
Participating from Ballari in a video conference meeting that the Union Minister held with the Health Ministers of the States on Friday for discussing matters related to COVID-19, Mr. Sriramulu said that the condition even in the COVID-19-hit districts was under control.
“As many as 207 positive cases of COVID-19 have thus for been reported from the State. They include the six deaths and 30 discharges upon recovery. Of those who had returned from Delhi, 30 tested positive for the disease. As many as 1.804 primary contacts and 5,533 secondary contacts of those tested positive for COVID-19 have been identified and kept under watch. As many as 16,334 foreign travellers are kept under home-quarantine. Of the 7,613 samples collected, 7,176 tested negative for the disease and results for 437 samples are awaited,” Mr. Sriramulu briefed the meeting.
Two more labs sought
Asserting the requirement of more COVID-19 testing facilities in the State to meet the growing demand, Mr. Sriramulu asked the Union government to provide two more COVID-19 testing laboratories to the State.
“We have 10 laboratories now. For the 13 districts in North Karnataka, we have only two – one each in Kalaburagi and Ballari. We need to establish two more in the region. I request you to sanction them so that we can effectively fight the COVID-19 menace,” Mr. Sriramulu told Mr. Harsh Vardhan.
Referring to the increased number of COVID-19 positive cases being reported from Mysuru, Mr. Sriramulu said that 26 of the 37 positive cases reported from the city were related to the pharma company at Nanjangud.
“The company had imported a semi-liquid container from China and the samples had been sent to a Pune lab to check whether the container had been contaminated. The report is still awaited. As per the reports we have, three technicians from Japan and one more from Delhi had visited the plant. We have already written to Japanese authorities on the issue,” he said.
He also told the Union Health Minister about the imminent arrival of one lakh Rapid Test Kits, 10 lakh Personal Protective Equipment, 18.33 lakh N-95 masks, and 324 ventilators, apart from triple-layer masks and hydroxychloroquine phosphate tablets.
Ballari Deputy Commissioner S.S. Nakul and other officers were present in the meeting.
