Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jul 11: Former minister B Ramanath Rai, has urged the government to open a temporary COVID hospital in Dakshina Kannada district with a capacity of not less than 1,500 beds to treat coronavirus cases that are rapidly increasing in the district.

Addressing a press meet at the district Congress office here on Friday July 10, Rai said that after the district Wenlock Hospital was converted into a COVID exclusive hospital, people are finding it difficult to get their other ailments treated. Therefore, he felt, there is an urgent need to locate a suitable spot and make arrangements to open a COVID Hospital on the lines of the one opened in Bengaluru.

"Towards exercising grip on coronavirus situation in the district, there is a need to undertake random checks. Ten ambulances to each of the taluks should be reserved for transporting patients to hospitals. I see that the state government and the district administration have failed to exercise proper control over the situation. It is apparent that the enthusiasm the government initially showed to regulate spread of coronavirus seems to have been lost steam. As a constructive opposition, the Congress is questioning the state government’s failures," he stated.

Rai claimed that the people are not able to get enough things of daily use, and on account of rising prices of petroleum products, prices of items of daily use are going up. Therefore, he asked the government to provide essential commodities to the people on the model of Kerala.

Form city mayors Shashidhar Hegde and Kavitha Sanil, leader of the opposition in the city corporation Abdul Rauf, corporator Naveen D'Souza, Santosh Shetty, Neeraj Pal and Nazeer Bajal were present.