Bengaluru: Gram Panchayats to get Rs 50K advance to shift patients to Covid centres

Bengaluru: Gram Panchayats in State will get Rs 50,000 each as advance to shift coronavirus patients to COVID care centres, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on Thursday. He was referring to the package announced by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday.

Yediyurappa had said that 6,000 Gram Panchayats will be given the sum in advance from the State Disaster Response Fund. "The Chief Minister has decided to provide Rs 50,000 advance to all village Panchayats. Village task force committee will utilise this fund to shift COVID patients to care centres," Sudhakar told reporters.

The Minister also said districts in Karnataka with more number of COVID cases will get 25 oxygen concentrators. "State has received 800 concentrators recently which will be distributed to districts with more cases like Hassan, Mandya, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Chitradurga where there is lack of facilities," Sudhakar said.

He also said that the state health department is working out to provide more assistance like ICU facility and oxygen in all medical colleges across the state. Sudhakar said he would soon tour Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Haveri, Hubballi and Gadag medical colleges this week to review the situation.

The minister also appealed to the district administrations and all public representatives to participate actively in COVID containment activities. "At present the positivity rate is at 27 per cent.

We are aiming to reduce it further by 5 per cent. IIT Kanpur has provided database research inputs to other countries on COVID projections and centre has also advised on this. We are also working on reducing mortality rate," Sudhakar said.

To a question, the minister said the government was not hiding any statistics. "There is no point in hiding the statistics. We are conducting more than 1.25 lakh tests every day. We are working to further increase the number and get the report within 24 hours," he said.