Making an appeal to the public not to panic over the instances of black fungus, Minister for Health and Medical Education K. Sudhakar on Friday said that the State government had requested union minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda to ensure increase in the supply of medicine for the infection to which he had responded positively.
Speaking to presspersons after holding a review meeting on COVID-19 management and visiting the district hospital in Davangere on Friday, Dr. Sudhakar admitted that the supply of medicines to the State for black fungus was inadequate. However the supply would be enhanced shortly, he said.
Dr. Sudhakar appealed to the people not to pay heed to rumours about the disease as already all district hospitals had been instructed to ensure treatment for it.
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“Various causes have been attributed for it. Patients with kidney problems and diabetes are susceptible to contracting the disease after recovering from COVID-19. We are awaiting for a report from experts’ committee which is likely to submit the same in a day or two,” he said.
Mentioning that barring a few districts, the positive cases in many had come down owing to strict government measures and people’s cooperation, Dr. Sudhakar said that a similar cooperation would help the government to fight against the pandemic during the second wave.
Replying to a query, the Minister said that as there were discrepancies in COVID-19 management in Davangere district, the administration had been asked to take requisite measures to address them within a week.
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The order on earmarking 75% beds in private medical college and 50% beds in private hospitals for COVID-19 treatment had not been implemented properly in the district and consequently the Deputy Comissioner had been asked to ensure its implementation and take legal action if necessary.
To another query, he said that all vacant posts of the doctors would be filled up within a week and also specialist doctors were being recruited. The district administrations had been authorised to recruit health staff on contract basis, he said.
Earlier. the Health Minister and others visited the Chigateri District Hospital. He took the health officials to task for discrepancies found there.
Later in the day, Dr. Sudhakar visited Haveri where COVID-19 deaths were comparatively more despite not so high rate of infections and chaired a review meeting along with district in-charge Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
Speaking to presspersons prior to the meeting, Dr. Sudhakar said that the State had sought 25,000 vials of medicines for black fungus and it was hopeful of receiving 10,000 vials in the next three days.