Karnataka's Ballari district offers music therapy to Coronavirus patients

Bengaluru:In addition to the regular Covid-19 treatment, patients in Karnataka's Ballari district are also being helped with music therapy, an official said on Sunday.

"We are offering music therapy for all patients," Ballari Deputy Commissioner S. S. Nakul told IANS.

In a video shared by Nakul, patients in a Covid hospital in the town were seen joyfully clapping, snapping, dancing and going in rounds inside the hospital.

Most of the patients came out of their beds, including some old men and women to clap around to a Bollywood song.

To make the music therapy more participative, patients have also been given an opportunity to croon.

A young man was seen singing a Kannada song, holding a microphone as he stood.

The medical staff provided the patient with a microphone right up to his bed, located in the middle of a row of beds, enabling him to sing from his bedside even as the medical staff were seen encouraging him from outside the treatment room.

Along with music therapy, the hospital authorities are also guiding the patients to do yoga and breathing exercises.

A yoga instructor speaks through a public address system from outside the treatment room as the patients sit on their beds to practice the breathing technique which he explains in Kannada.

Lead by Nakul, Ballari district had already become famous for employing innovative techniques to hasten the healing process of Covid patients.

Earlier on the Independence Day, doctors at Ballari town's Trauma Care Hospital, which has been designated as a Covid hospital had played the national anthem to give the patients an opportunity to celebrate in a small way.

Doctors distributed fruits to the patients as part of the celebration.

In the first week of August, a 28-year-old orthopedic doctor, Inamdar, had celebrated his birthday with coronavirus patients to cheer them up and shatter their gloomy isolation for some time.

Prior to that, viral videos emerged from a Ballari hospital where patients were seen dancing away to a Kannada song from the movie Upendra.

Ballari is the second most coronavirus infected place in the southern state after Bengaluru Urban, accounting for 17,273 Covid cases, out of which 6,064 are active.

After Bengaluru Urban's 34,224 active cases, Ballari has the second highest number of active cases.

Likewise, the district has also been consistently reporting the second highest number of Covid infections after Bengaluru on a daily basis.