Udupi Deputy Commissioner G. Jagadeesha on Tuesday urged people to strictly maintain social distancing and wear face masks always as more and more ILI and SARI cases were being reported of late. The administration, he said, is geared up with enough treatment facility while private hospitals too will join when the need arises.
He was speaking to reporters at Udupi after launching a mega campaign to create awareness about social distancing and face masks. All local bodies — urban as well as rural — were asked to levy hefty fines on violators of face mask and social distancing norms, he said and urged people to follow these rules even with their relatives.
Enough beds
Mr. Jagadeesha said that as many as 1,200 beds were available for COVID-19 care, while another 1,200 could be arranged in a day’s notice. Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Manipal, would provide a 150-bed COVID-19 treatment facility from Wednesday, while it would add another 50 beds in the coming days on the request of the administration. Government hospitals in Kundapur and Karkala with 200 and 100 beds respectively could also be converted as COVID-19 hospitals in addition to the existing 140-bed facility at TMA Pai Hospital in Udupi, he said.
The district has enough ventilators — 50 — with the government facility itself and another 20 were being added. The administration has held four rounds of talks with private hospitals wherein they were told to be prepared to offer enough number of COVID-19 beds on demand. Only after exhausting the available government facilities, private hospitals would be asked to share the responsibility, Mr. Jagadeesha said.
While 90% of COVID-19 positive cases were from outside the district earlier, nearly 50% of the positive cases being reported since two days were of influenza like illness and severe acute respiratory illness. As such, people should exercise more caution, Mr. Jagadeesha said.
Bus facility
Regarding the demand to reintroduce bus facility, he said that he would shortly allow services. Routes are being identified, he said and added that no bus, private or KSRTC, should carry more than 30 passengers. Action would be initiated against violation.
