Bengaluru, Jul 15 (IANS): Karnataka Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar has set a deadline for the zonal in-charge officers to form booth level committees before the end of lockdown on Wednesday.

"Booth level task force committees to be fully functional before this lockdown ends. Committee formation, training of the members and everything has to finish within one or two days," said Sudhakar.

He expects the committee members to start home surveys as soon as possible to identify Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) cases for further referrals to hospitals, Covid Care Centres (CCCs) or home isolation based on their severity.

In a video conference lasting a couple of hours, the minister instructed the officers to adhere to the strategic plan devised to tackle the pandemic effectively, urging better coordination with colleges for executing the tasks.

"Guidelines on classifying these cases should be conveyed to the members during training. Members should also have a pulse oximeter and thermal scanners with them and they should coordinate with provide ambulances where there is a need for it," he said.

According to Sudhakar, the booth level committee members should track primary and secondary contacts of the infected persons as well, supervised by the zonal in-charge officers.

Additionally, the officers have also been entrusted with the care of labs and testing procedures in their respective zones.

Likewise, he has also directed that no Covid sample should be kept pending for a week and assigned senior officer Shalini Rajneesh to supervise the work of the booth level task force committees.

Meanwhile, Sudhakar has said people living in slums without a facility for home quarantine should be isolated at government CCCs.

Inspired by the successful management of the pandemic in Mumbai's Dharavi slum, Sudhakar advised the officers to follow the model.