Karnataka minister Sudhakar urges Centre for more Covid vaccines for state

Karnataka Health and Medical Education Minister, Dr K Sudhakar has requested the Centre to provide more Covid-19 vaccines for the state.

The Minister on Tuesday, while speaking to media persons after participating in the Union Health Minister's VC with the Health Ministers of 11 states/Union territories, said he had appealed to the Centre to provide more doses of vaccines to Karnataka in order to control the pandemic.

The Minister explained the measures taken in the state including speeding up testing to control the second wave in the state. The Minister also requested the centre to allocate more vaccines to the state and explained the need to increase the availability of Oxygen for the patients.

Speaking on the COVID guidelines, the Minister insisted that there should be uniform guidelines across the country regarding cinema halls, interstate travelling, meetings and other public gatherings. This will help in clearer instructions and easy to follow. Therefore, all affected states should have uniform guidelines to make people aware of the seriousness of the situation, he said.

We are conducting 1.15 lakh to 1.25 lakh tests per day. 2,19,87,431 tests were accomplished as of 5th April. Out of which 1,77,66,796 are RTPCR tests he said. The state's mortality rate stands at 1.24 pc. It is at 0.47 pc since March 1. Bengaluru records 1.03 pc mortality rate and 0.42 pc since March 1, he explained.

"We have implemented COVID guidelines like compulsory wearing of masks, maintaining physical distance etc. a penalty of Rs.250 is imposed for not following the guidelines. We have also identified sensitive containment zones. We are declaring the places with more than 5 cases as sensitive zones", said the Minister.

On Tuesday, the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan chaired a high-level review meeting with Health Ministers, Additional Chief Secretaries and Principal Secretaries (Health) of States/UTs of Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan. These states have been reporting a very high rise in daily cases and daily mortality because of COVID-19 in the last two weeks.