The Karnataka High Court Asked Bengaluru Civic Authority Not to Demolish Covid Facilities

The Karnataka High Court has ordered the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) not to demolish the city's current Covid care facilities until an expert panel recommends it.

Facilities like Covid care centres and critical care centres should not be demolished until the expert panel set up by the state government to begin preparing for a possible third wave of the pandemic submits its suggestions, according to a special division bench led by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar.

The order was issued on Thursday after the HC learned that the BBMP was winding down operations at some of the care facilities due to a drop in admissions.

However, V Sreenidhi, a lawyer for the BBMP, said the local government has vaccinated 10.91 lakh persons, from 1,311 slums spread across eight zones. According to the counsel's statistics, this coverage is based on a total of 30.68 lakh slum people within the BBMP's jurisdiction.

It was also observed that in the city, 1.77 lakh people who were recognized as frontline workers and from priority groups had been vaccinated.

The civic government has chosen to return the beds to the private medical colleges and hospitals, with just 20% reserved for Covid patients. The decision was made after noticing a decline in covid cases over the last fortnight.

According to BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta, the government has allocated 13,000 beds in private hospitals and medical institutes around the city. They have chosen to keep about 20% of the general beds and give the remainder back to them.

In April, the government requested that private hospitals and medical colleges set aside 50% of their beds for Covid patients, similar to what happened during the first wave.

In the following days, the government and the municipal body will decide on the High Dependency Unit, Intensive Care Unit, and ICU-Ventilator beds, according to Gupta.