Concerned over the rise in COVID-19 cases in Karnataka, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday wrote to the State to examine the situation of COVID-19 at the micro level (district and sub-districts) and maintain focus on implementation of necessary measures for prompt and effective management.
In his letter addressed to T.K. Anil Kumar, Karnataka Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare), on Thursday, Mr. Bhushan pointed out that Karnataka’s test positivity rate (TPR), which stood at 2.77% in the week ending March 15, is higher than India’s TPR of 0.61% during the same period. Karnataka reported an increase in weekly cases from 493 in the week ending March 8, 2023, to 604 in the week ending March 15, 2023.
From 234 cases in the week ending February 21, the number of cases shot up to 604 in the week ending March 15 in the State. The letter has mentioned four districts - Shivamogga, Kalaburagi, Mysuru, and Uttara Kannada - which have reported an increase in the total number of cases in the week ending March 15 as compared to the previous week.
Bengaluru epicentre
Although the Union Secretary’s letter did not mention Bengaluru’s increasing caseload and hospitalisations, the city continues to be the epicentre of COVID in the State. M.K. Sudarshan, chairman of the State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), told The Hindu that nearly 70% of the daily cases are being reported from Bengaluru. “The city has always been the State’s COVID epicentre. The TPR in Bengaluru shot up from 5.17% on March 1 to 7.51% on March 15. Over 97% of the total hospitalisations in the State and over 70% of the daily cases are in Bengaluru. From 12 admissions on March 1, the number of hospitalisations rose to 63 on Thursday in Bengaluru. What is worrisome is the number of ICU admissions have also seen a three-fold rise,” he said.
“Hence, Bengaluru needs to be added to the list of four districts mentioned in the Union Health Secretary’s letter that need special attention (for COVID containment) while reviewing the situation at the State-level,” the TAC chairman said.
Clinical, death audits
Taking note of the rising trend, the TAC had recommended that the State conduct a clinical audit of the hospitalised patients and death audit of all the four fatalities reported since January. Following that the State Health Commissioner Randeep D. wrote to BBMP Special Commissioner (Health) K.V. Trilok Chandra asking the BBMP to start the clinical and death audit. “In view of concern over rising cases and based on the TAC’s recommendations, it is necessary to investigate if there is any coinfection of H3N2 Influenza and COVID-19 as both share similar respiratory symptoms,” stated the Commissioner’s note.
Risk assessment-based approach
Advising the State to ensure effective compliance with various advisories issued by the Union Health Ministry, Mr. Rajesh Bhushan’s letter stated: “There are a few States which are reporting higher number of cases indicating possible localised spread of the infection. There is a need to follow a risk assessment-based approach to prevent and contain the infection, without losing the gains made so far in the fight against the pandemic.”
There should be continued focus on adequate and proactive testing as per guidelines, monitoring new and emerging clusters of COVID cases, monitoring of Influenza-like illness (ILI) and SARI cases in all health facilities or through dedicated fever clinics on a regular basis for detecting early warning signals of the spread of infection and genomic sequencing for prescribed samples of international passengers, the letter added.
Published - March 16, 2023 09:32 pm IST
