All asymptomatic patients in Chamarajanagar district will henceforth be isolated and quarantined in the newly established COVID Care Centres to prevent the spread of the pandemic in the rural areas.
This was announced by the Minister for Education and district in charge S. Suresh Kumar in Chamarajanagar on Thursday.
There are 1,894 patients under home isolation in the district and the district administration had reviewed the earlier decision last week. This followed complaints of violation of isolation norms which threatened community health.
The difficulties in ensuring isolation of asymptomatic patients in rural areas were high on the minds of the district administration and health experts following which a decision has been taken to admit asymptomatic patients to COVID care centres.
This also stems from the prevailing rural milieu in which large families live in one- or two-room houses with a common toilet sharing which results in community spread.
Mr. Suresh Kumar said Morarji Desai Residential Schools, Kitturu Chenamma Residential School, and Ekalavya Residential Hostels will serve as care centres.
The hospital building of the Chamarajanagar Medical College will be converted into a 200-bed COVID-19 hospital and will be ready to admit patients in four days which will augment the bed capacity in the district, the Minister added.
The district has come under the spotlight following the death of 24 COVID-19 patients between May 2 and 3 allegedly due to oxygen shortage, and a one-man judicial commission has been constituted to probe the incident.
The Minister said an expert team comprising health experts and doctors will visit Chamarajanagar to reduce the case fatality rate and suitable measures will be initiated based on the committee’s recommendations.
Meanwhile, an official statement said the oxygen refilling centres in Mysuru had been given directions to ensure that there should be no disruption in supply of oxygen to Chamarajanagar.
Chamarajanagar requires about 300 D type cylinders, each of which have a capacity of 47 litres, every day. However, failure to receive sufficient number of oxygen cylinders on time has been cited as the reason for the deaths in Chamarajanagar district hospital. There are 3,400 actives cases in Chamarajanagar district as on Wednesday.
