Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, May 13: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, D K Shivakumar, said that coronavirus infection has been spreading fast as a result of the people in the villages who have tested positive, being treated in home isolation. He therefore made a strong pitch for the use of hostels for treating the corona-infected people.

Speaking when holding virtual meeting with gram panchayat development officers and presidents from Kanakapura taluk, he noted that the infection spreads to other members of the family as the infections are treated in home isolation. He asked this procedure to be stopped forthwith and to shift all the infected persons to Covid care centres and provide them good treatment there. He asked the deputy commissioner to make use of hostels to create Covid care centres.

Deshpande demands ventilator specialists

Former minister, R V Deshpande, demanded for the appointment of ventilator experts on contract basis to take proper steps during the handling of Covid and save lives of the people. In a letter addressed to the chief minister, he lamented the death of many people in the second wave of the pandemic. He noted that Karnataka tops the list of highest infected persons and Bengaluru city has become the hot spot of coronavirus infection. He demanded setting up of temporary hospitals to meet the shortage of facilities and increase the number of beds and ventilators.

He said he is pained to understand that ventilators which can save many lives, have been received from donors, PM Cares fund etc but there are no experienced technical experts to handle them. He said that if there were ventilator specialists, many lives could have been saved and advised the government to take notice and act at least now.

Deshpande noted that with the help of Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), temporary hospitals with 500 and 1,000 beds were set up very fast in Lucknow, Delhi, Bihar, Haryana etc. The operation of the hospitals has also been entrusted to the medical staff of the Indian Army, and this was stated by Dr V K Saraswat, member of the Niti Ayog. By utilizing the services of the DRDO, a 1,000 bed hospital in Bengaluru and 500 bed hospital in Belagavi area should be set up, he advised the chief minister.