Health and Family Welfare Minister B. Sriramulu told Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan that the State has identified 10 COVID-19 hotspot districts for implementing intense monitoring and preventive measures.
Participating from Ballari in a videoconference 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 in the COVID-19-hit districts in the State was under control.
“As many as 207 positive cases of COVID-19 have thus far been reported from the State. They include the six deaths and 30 patients who have been discharged upon their recovery.
“Of those who had returned from Delhi, 30 tested positive. As many as 1,804 primary contacts and 5,533 secondary contacts of those who 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 told the meeting.
Asserting that more COVID-19 testing facilities in the State are required to meet the growing demand, Mr. Sriramulu demanded that the Union government to provide at least two more such laboratories.
“We have 10 laboratories in the State for COVID-19 tests. 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 COVID-19,” 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 Jubilant Life Sciences pharmaceutical company at Nanjangud.
“The company had imported a semi-liquid container from China. The samples of this container had been sent to a Pune lab to check whether it had been contaminated. The report is still awaited. As per reports we have, three technicians from Japan and one more from Delhi had visited the plant. We have already written to the Japanese authorities in the matter,” he said.
He told the Union Health Minister about the imminent arrival of one lakh Rapid Test Kits, 10 lakh Personal Protective Equipment kits, 18.33 lah N-95 masks, 54 tripple-layer masks, hydroxychloroquine phosphate tablets and 324 ventilators.
Ballari Deputy Commissioner S.S. Nakul and other officers were present.
