Minister for Cooperation S.T. Somashekar, who is in charge of Mysuru district, has directed the police to strengthen security at the K.R.Hospital where doctors on COVID-19 duty were roughed up following a patient’s death.
Speaking to mediapersons here on Friday, Mr. Somashekar said action will also be initiated against those responsible for manhandling the hospital staff. The Minister said he has also spoken to the authorities concerned on preventing such incidents from being repeated.
Extolling the entire medical community for their work during the pandemic, the Minister said the doctors and nurses were working round-the-clock to treat the patients and one had to be indebted to them for their services.
In reply to a question the Minister said the authorities were on alert for black fungus cases and there was no need to panic.
Mr. Somashekar, who also presided over the COVID-19 task force meeting in the city, urged the authorities to ramp up the number of oxygenated beds and ventilators and expand the capacity of the ICUs to accommodate more patients .
On increasing the supply of oxygen to the district, he said any such demand in the absence of authentic records and supply and actual requirements, will be difficult to comply with given its scarcity. Hence the authorities were directed to ensure that the oxygen requirements of hospitals outside the purview of the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust was also assessed to ensure that there was no deaths related to oxygen paucity.
