While surrounding states see spike in virus, Colorado’s methodical approach is working.
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Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
K’taka announces new testing regime to check for community transmission
Delivery personnel, street vendors, people at billing counters of supermarkets, are among the people who will be tested.
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Karnataka’s Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar announced on Tuesday that individual testing numbers in the state will be increased to at least 15,000 samples per day. The announcement came among a slew of key changes to Karnataka’s strategy to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. “We are going to increase the number of tests up to a minimum of 15,000 to 25,000 tests everyday. There are 41 government labs and 31 private labs and we will be doing individual testing,” the Minister said, following a meeting with senior officials and experts studying steps being taken by other states in India. Testing numbers in Karnataka dropped to its lowest level in the past month on Monday, when the state tested just 5,362 samples. By comparison, the state tested over 10,000 samples on Saturday. Who will be tested? Along with interstate travellers, officials in railway stations, police stations, and health workers will be tested as per the new testing policy. Delivery personnel, including those who deliver food, postal mail and other material for e-commerce websites will be tested. Street vendors, people working at billing counters of supermarkets, and others who come in contact with a large number of people will be tested. Pourakarmikas (sanitation workers) and those residing in slums will be tested along with the elderly (people over the age of 50), people with ILI (influenza like illness) and SARI (severe acute respiratory infection) symptoms and those with comorbidities. Randomised testing will be conducted on people living in former containment zones that are currently inactive. “The intention behind this is to check if it (the virus) has spread anywhere in the community and whether it has resurfaced in old containment zones,” Minister Sudhakar said. The Minister added that at least 20,000 beds will be readied at government COVID Care Centres (CCC) in Bengaluru by the end of the month. Similarly, an increased number of beds will be readied across the state. “As the cases are increasing in the last two weeks, COVID Care Centres will be established to monitor and treat infected persons who are asymptomatic,” Minister Sudhakar assured. Medical Education Minister Sudhakar K Private hospitals with capability to treat COVID-19 patients In another key policy change, the Medical Education Minister stated that private hospitals will be asked to keep COVID-19 patients in their facilities as long as they are equipped to do so. “Private hospitals should act with utmost responsibility and proactively participate in this fight against COVID-19. Strict action will be taken against hospitals which refuse to treat COVID patients despite having capability. Detailed guidelines will soon be released regarding the number of beds, ICUs and ventilators to be reserved for treatment of COVID cases,” Sudhakar added. Until now, designated government-run hospitals were treating COVID-19 patients in the state. For instance, the Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru was considered the designated hospital to treat COVID-19 patients. The state government is creating an app to help people find information about the number of hospitals, ICU facilities, ventilators and beds in their area. The number of coronavirus cases in Karnataka rose to 7,530 on Tuesday after 317 cases were reported.
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Woman staffer at Karnataka’s Vidhana Soudha tests positive for coronavirus
Seven from the state succumbed to COVID-19, taking the death toll in the state to 94.
Karnataka reported 317 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, taking the state’s total tally to 7,530 cases. The government’s daily medical bulletin recorded seven new fatalities, which means the state’s COVID-19 death toll is now 94. With 322 patients getting discharged following recovery, the number of active cases across the state is now 2,976. Among them, 72 are being treated in intensive care units (ICUs). First case at Vikasa Soudha The 317 new cases reported on Tuesday included the first recorded case of COVID-19 from the Vikasa Soudha (annexe building of Vidhana Soudha), Karnataka’s seat of power. A woman staffer working with the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs tested positive. As a result of this, five rooms of the Department, located on the ground floor of the Vikas Soudha, an annexe building at the state legislature, have been sealed for sanitisation and fumigation purposes. A source in the Chief Minister’s office confirmed the development. “So far, one woman has tested positive. The offices will be closed for the next one day for sanitisation processes to take place. In total, 15-20 persons will be quarantined,” the source said. Other offices in the building are functioning as per usual. Today’s cases 78 among the new cases reported on Tuesday are international passengers while another 108 are interstate returnees. 99 of the interstate returnees have recent travel history to Maharashtra as the trend has been for over two weeks. Another 60 are contacts of COVID-19 patients. 28 persons have tested positive without any relevant travel or contact history, according to the daily bulletin. 34 persons are patients with influenza like illness (ILI), six are with SARI (severe acute respiratory infection and three have interdistrict travel history. District-wise The new cases were spread across 20 districts, with Dakshina Kannada emerging the worst-affected with 79 new cases. Kalaburagi and Ballari reported 63 and 53 new cases respectively. 47 new cases were reported from the state capital Bengaluru. All other districts saw cases rise by less than 10 cases. With regard to active cases, Kalaburagi remains the worst-impacted with 523 patients being treated for the disease.Yadgir with 472 patients is the second worst-affected while Bengaluru with 372 cases is the third worst-hit by the disease. Deaths Five out of the seven COVID-19 deaths that were confirmed on Tuesday were from Bengaluru. All of them were reported to be suffering from multiple comorbid conditions
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Karnataka health workers attacked while shifting patients with COVID-19 to hospital
Visuals showed that glass of the ambulance was shattered and another vehicle belonging to the health department was also vandalised.
Health workers in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi district, who went to a village to shift 14 people with COVID-19 to the hospital on Monday, were attacked after an argument with residents of the village. Fourteen people from Tanda village in Kalaburagi tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Monday following which a team of health department officials left for the village to shift the infected persons to the designated COVID-19 hospital, the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS Gulbarga). However, an argument ensued between health officials and village residents leading to the residents throwing stones at the ambulance and another vehicle belonging to the health department. Visuals showed that glass was shattered in the ambulance and another vehicle which was also attacked. "Medical staff had gone to the village to bring those people. The staff had an argument with villagers and it turned violent. Residents began throwing stones at the ambulance and one other vehicle that belongs to the health department," Kalaburagi SP Iada Martin Marbaniang said. The SP along with other police officials reached the spot, where the incident took place and convinced the residents to allow the health department to shift the infected persons. "I went along with other police officials to the village. We were able to convince those who had tested positive to come to hospital for the treatment. What we are doing is not for our good or benefit. It is for their benefit. They have to be isolated so that they don't infect other people," Iada Martin stated. Following this, 13 of the infected persons were isolated in the designated COVID-19 hospital while one person allegedly absconded. Police officials on Tuesday said that all 14 infected persons have now been isolated.
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Cheap steroid reduces Covid-19 deaths in large study
The drug would be the first known to reduce deaths in Covid-19 patients.
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Bengaluru: 3 more nurses in Victoria hospital get COVID-19
One staff member in NIMHANS hospital too has tested positive
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In a worrying development, three nurses engaged in COVID-19 duty in Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The three patients were among the 35 persons who had tested positive on Monday from Bengaluru Urban district. A senior nursing staff in the hospital told TNM, “In this instance too, the three nurses (two women, one man) have tested positive on the last day of their quarantine. All of them were asymptomatic.” Another nurse from the hospital had earlier tested positive for the virus, on the last day of her quarantine period. According to current norms followed by the hospital, a batch of 12 nurses work for a certain period of time and are allowed to go home after they finish a 14-day quarantine period. On the second last day of their quarantine period, they are also mandatorily tested before they are allowed to go home homes. This incident of nurses testing positive despite having used personal protective equipment and having taken all precautions has left the medical administrators in the state baffled. In another development, a staff worker in National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) also tested positive for the virus. This the seventh staff member from the hospital to contract the infection. Dr KS Meena, Media Cell at NIMHANS, said, “The lady who tested positive today is 24 years old and is a swachata worker at the engineering section at NIMHANS. Her sister was one of the six ladies who had tested positive three days back. The lady came in contact with her sister before the sister was tested.” As earlier reported, six women staffers of the hospital had tested positive last week. All these six staffers were in institutional quarantine as they had come in contact with an infected patient. In total 36 persons were put in institutional quarantine after the patient had tested positive. Other patients who were present in the same ward were also shifted to isolation wards
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Free COVID tele-counselling helpline operated by psychologists launched in Bengaluru
While most helplines are operated by volunteers who undergo a brief training, what sets Swasti apart is that all 50 of its volunteers are practising or teaching psychologists.
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Among the many fallouts of the COVID-19 pandemic is the impact it is having and will continue to have on mental health. Increased anxiety and exacerbation of existing mental health issues are some things that are already apparent, and experts say that the effects on mental and emotional wellbeing will be felt for a much longer time. In an attempt to address the same, psychologists in Bengaluru have launched Swasti, a tele-counselling helpline, which will be operated by clinical psychologists and counselling psychologists. This sets apart Swasti, because usually volunteers at helplines such as these are not trained in counselling or psychology but are simply put through basic training. “Swasti, as the name suggests, signifies wellness and is a service providing succour to distressed people. It is a free tele-counselling centre initiated by Association of Health Psychologists (AHP) and Bangalore Psychology Forum (BPF) along with Karnataka Child Rights Observatory, Dr Reddy’s Foundation, Karnataka professional Social Workers’ Association, with active support from UNICEF,” says a brief on the helpline. Dr Manika Ghosh, who is heading the initiative, is the secretary of AHP and the president of BPF. She says that the team has been working on Swasti for around two months, and though the helpline has been active for the last 20 days or so, the official launch happened on June 12. “All of the 50 volunteers operating the helpline are either teaching or practising psychologists. Between us, we can provide services in multiple languages as well including English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Urdu and Malayalam,” Dr Manika tells TNM. While the helpline is open to all – from students, to migrant workers, to frontline workers, to anyone in distress – the team plans to go one step ahead in trying to help the callers as well. “For instance, if a migrant worker calls us saying that they do not have food or sustenance, we will take down their number. We will check our network of referrals and try to get assistance for the person via an official or an NGO and then contact the caller with the same information,” says Dr Manika. Similarly, if they receive calls from someone who is in an abusive setup, depending on the setup the helpline operators will assist them. “Sometimes, it is not possible for them to simply get out of the situation. So we will provide counselling and support. However, if they require intervention, we will try to guide them accordingly through our referral network,” Dr Manika explains. The psychologists volunteering for the helpline have been selected after a psychometric assessment to ensure that they are in a position to provide tele-counselling. They will be routinely put through this assessment to ensure that they are in a fit state to continue their services for Swasti as well. Further, to ensure that the cases they get are appropriately dealt with, the psychologists will also consult with each other routinely to draw from each other’s experience and different areas of expertise. While the helpline has been launched in the context of COVID-19, Dr Manika says that they plan to continue this even after the current crisis is over – whenever that is. “The mental health impact of something like this will be felt much after it’s over too. Issues like anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and so on will impact people for much longer.” Swasti operates between 6 am to 11 pm on all days and can be reached at 080-47186060.
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