Bengaluru: The State Government has decided not to allow home isolation in rural areas and slums of urban areas to get them  admitted mandatorily to COVID Care Centres (CCCs), said Deputy Chief Minister and State COVID Ministerial Task Force Head, Dr. C.N. Ashwathnarayan.

After the Task Force meeting here yesterday, he said, “In rural areas, COVID Care Centres will be established at Primary Health Centre (PHC) level. Rapid Antigen Test needs to be done at the door step in viral hot spots. In rural areas, arrangements for isolation and treatment will be made in places such as hostels. This has to be done under the supervision of Deputy Commissioners,” he said. 

He said that Task Force took several decisions with regard to ICU beds, oxygenated beds, vaccination, drugs and consumables procurement, black fungal mitigation and strengthening of health infrastructure in both rural and urban areas. 

Important decisions

 In every District Hospital, 100 ICU beds will be made available on a permanent basis. For this, required infrastructure and manpower need to be provided and all these should have oxygen generating units.

Only 2nd dose of Covaxin will be administered. Those who have taken the 1st dose 6 weeks earlier will be inoculated on priority. Covishield 2nd dose will be administered for those who have completed 12 weeks after taking the 1st dose. Before this gap, no one will be given the 2nd dose. First dose of this vaccine will be administered for the age group of above 45 years.

New app for vaccine

With regard to administering vaccine for 18-44 age group a new App needs to be developed.  This will be interfaced with CoWIN App and later the vaccination schedule will be prepared taking into account the availability          of vaccines.

For administering vaccine priority list will be prepared. This may include those who are working in the Postal Department, Agricultural Department, Bank employees, internet service providers, etc. Vaccine will be administered outside hospitals, in places such as school grounds, etc.

 For each bed, Rs.10 will be given to facilitate timely disposal of waste in Government Hospitals. Medical kits will be given for also those infected referred by private doctors.

 To study the changes in the genetics of viruses, it was decided to set up Genome Labs in 6 places in the State. Out of these, 4 will be from Medical Colleges and two will be from the Health Department.

Other related decisions

It was approved to procure medicines and other consumables required for the next 90 days in a phased manner at the expense of Rs. 260 crore. Procurement will be done through State Medical Supply Corporation by floating tenders.

At present about 400 black fungus cases are estimated per week and there is a shortage of required drugs. The Central Government will be asked to provide 20,000 vials of the needed drug.

Oxygen regulators 

1,000 oxygen utility regulatory devices developed by DRDO will be purchased. Out of this, 900 will be an automatic model which costs Rs. 10,000 each and 100 will be of manual mode which costs Rs. 6,000 each.

Oxygen bottling plants will be set up in 9 districts that do not have this facility. Oxygen generators of 200-300 litres per minute will be set up in community health centres. All the beds will be oxygenated in all Taluk Hospitals. To facilitate this, oxygen generators of capacity 500-600 litres per minute will be set up.

 Global tender to procure 5 lakh Remdesivir injections and Rs. 75 crore reserved for this purpose. There are 207 community health centres with 30 beds each in the State. All the 30 beds in each of these centres will be converted into oxygenated beds. Out of these, 5 ICU beds and 5 HDU beds will be made available.