Micromanage containment zones, resume public transport: BS Yediyurappa tells PM
Karnataka wants to do away with the red-orange-green zoning of districts, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, while recommending micromanaging the containment of COVID-19.
Yediyurappa also pitched for resumption of public transport services in non-containment zones.
“Only containment zones have to be identified and strictly cordoned…50-100 metres around known clusters may be declared as containment zones,” Yediyurappa said during his video conference with Modi, according to a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).
Earlier, Karnataka protested categorising Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural as red zones and mooted dividing the state capital into zones for micromanaging the pandemic and relaxing lockdown restrictions.
The government also favoured hospitalisation of only those COVID-19 patients with “severe symptoms,” Yediyurappa said. “We must make tele-medicine the new protocol to approach this pandemic.”
Karnataka told the Centre that malls, theatres, diners and establishments with centrally-controlled air conditioning should remain closed while all other economic activities in “stand-alone establishments” can resume.
“All domestic and international travel should not be permitted at least till the end of May,” the CM said, adding that international travelers will be placed under compulsory institutional quarantine for 14 days whereas, interstate travellers will also be institutionally quarantined and tested.
“All interstate travelers should be issued a health clearance certificate at the place of origin of journey by local authorities/hospital. Those without a health clearance certificate, to be placed under compulsory quarantine,” he said.
Karnataka also sought a nationwide testing guideline “to determine the minimum number of tests per million to be carried out in each state.” Only those with symptoms and the need for hospitalization should be tested, the CM suggested.
The state government has increased its testing capacity “on war footing”, the CM pointed out. “There were only two labs with a testing capacity of about 300 per day in February and today we have 35 labs with a testing capacity exceeding 6,000 tests per day. Our state recently crossed the one lakh tests milestone. We are on track to set up 60 labs by this month-end,” Yediyurappa said.
Giving his government a pat on the back, Yediyurappa said the ‘tracing, tracking, testing and treating’ approach helped keep the COVID-19 numbers in the state comparatively low. “Till date, the government, through detailed survey, has identified and tested 4,419 SARI cases and 12,525 ILI cases in the state for COVID-19,” he said.
The government has imparted online training for 93,723 healthcare personnel. A total of 58.10 lakh citizens have downloaded the Arogya Setu mobile app, which has been integrated with ApthaMitra for telephonic monitoring and treatments of suspected cases, the CM informed.
By Sisel Soman – COO
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