The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the city’s civic agency, has made COVID-19 tests mandatory in private hospitals for all those coming with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) and Influenza Like Illness (ILI) in Bengaluru. "All the SARI, ILI patients coming to OPD in private hospitals in BBMP limits should be tested for COVID-19 compulsorily and other patients also could be advised to undergo the same if needed," the BBMP quoted Special Commissioner Dr Trilok Chandra as saying in a statement.
Addressing a meeting with the Private Hospitals and Nursing Home Association (PHANA) and more than 100 private hospitals, he said precautionary measures should be taken to prevent spreading of COVID-19 in the city. The officer asked the hospitals to make sure that everyone visiting the hospital had been inoculated. If someone has taken only the first dose of the vaccine, the hospitals should make them take the second dose, he said.
Dr Chandra assured the representatives of PHANA that the COVID-19 cases in the city were stable. Yet, as a precautionary measure the private hospitals should be ready to reserve beds for COVID-19 patients, including separate pediatric beds. He also insisted that the information about real time bed availability should be uploaded on the PHANA portal. All the necessary measures should be taken to ensure proper availability of oxygen, he told the representatives of PHANA.
On Monday, December 21, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar announced that the number of people infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has reached 19 in the state. Earlier, a cluster of five Omicron cases were detected in two educational institutions in Dakshina Kannada district, in students aged between 13 and 18 years. They had no history of travel abroad or to neighbouring states such as Kerala, authorities said.