The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to increase the number of hospitals and drawn up a plan to improve health infrastructure in the city. Speaking to reporters on Monday, BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said, “In the background of COVID-19 and other potential pandemics in the future, we have drawn up detailed plans for the upgradation of our healthcare infrastructure.” Gaurav Gupta said that the plans include creation of secondary hospitals at each constituency. He further said that the existing city-level hospital will also be improved and kept ready.
“Some such hospitals are already operational and in other places, buildings are present which will be used as hospitals. Where there are no such buildings, we are taking up construction,” he said. He further stated that the proposal had been submitted to the Government of Karnataka and the budget will be decided after the project receives approval from the government. He also stated that funding from the state government will be necessary.
Gaurav Gupta stated that the proposal has been made because currently only primary health services are under the BBMP. “We have 141 Primary Health Centers (PHC) and six reference centers but they are for maternity cases,” he said.
The BBMP chief also spoke about the ongoing vaccination drive in the city. As of July 22, a total of 81.97% of eligible candidates had received at least the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, according to a report by the Government of Karnataka.Speaking to reporters, Gaurav Gupta said that over 15% of people had also received the second dose of vaccine. He also stated that over 1,80,000 (1.8 lakh) students had been vaccinated in Bengaluru ahead of the reopening of physical classes in colleges from Monday. The state government has mandated that only those students who have received the first dose of vaccine will be allowed to attend classes offline.