In light of a possible outbreak of communicable diseases in the flood-affected districts of North Karnataka, Health and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar on Monday directed officials to initiate steps to provide quality food and clean and safe drinking water to those housed in relief centres.
“If safe drinking water is not available, it should be boiled and filtered before being provided to people. The government has provided a menu chart and guidelines have been laid down to maintain cleanliness at the care centres,” he said, after holding a review meeting of Deputy Commissioners, District Health Officers, and zilla panchayat CEOs of Bagalkot, Vijayapura, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Koppal, and Belagavi districts through videoconferencing.
The government has directed the authorities to shift senior citizens, pregnant women, and children to community health centres, and for the provision of masks, sanitisers, and other facilities, besides ensuring that social distancing norm are followed.
Saying that the spread of communicable diseases such as dengue and chikungunya in these districts was under control when compared to last year, the Minister said that the next few months would be crucial. “We have instructed officials to make use of mobile health units, if necessary,” he said, adding that the chances of spread of infections were more during the winter and festive seasons. He said that Kerala, which had effectively contained the spread of the virus, saw a spurt after Onam. “The same mistake should not be repeated in Karnataka,” he said.
On pvt. hospitals
Dr. Sudhakar said that if any private hospital is found using agents or asking patients to wait to get a bed or overcharging for beds, people can complain to the State government and the registration of the hospital would be cancelled.
He also acknowledged that there were complaints that many private hospitals were falsely terming people as positive for COVID-19, while many people were also giving out wrong phone numbers and addresses when they get tested for COVID-19.
Dr. Sudhakar said there has been a 73% increase in testing this month in Bengaluru, which is greater than the percentage in cities such as Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Delhi. He added that the positivity rate and the death rate were decreasing in the State because of early testing. Till September 19, as many as 13 lakh tests were done in Bengaluru alone, but within a month, by October 18, around 22 lakh tests were conducted in the city, he said.
On vaccine
Dr. Sudhakar has appealed to citizens to take care of their health for another three months and exercise all precautionary measures, as the hope is that a COVID-19 vaccine will be out in January.
He also said that he would have a meeting with experts to see how the distribution of vaccine should take place in the State. “It will be an elaborate exercise and we will plan how the distribution of vaccine can be done across the State. First, senior citizens and those with co-morbidities will get vaccinated,” the Minister said.
He also advocated that people take measures such as steam inhalation with mint or tulsi leaves, Unani medicine Arque-Ajeeb, and drinking turmeric milk. These measures were suggested by an AYUSH expert who was present at the press conference. However, many doctors have pointed out that there is no evidence that measures such as steaming will help people keep COVID-19 at bay.
