Karnataka Covid-19 Update: Continued Curfews, District-Level Technical Expert Committees, Doctor-At-Doorstep Among Measures To Prepare For Third Wave

Anticipating a third wave at the end of this year, the Karnataka government on Monday issued a notification for the formation of District Level Covid-19 Technical Expert Committees (TEC) that will provide technical guidance to the district administrations.

As per the notification, this TEC has been formed as per the recommendation of the Technical Advisory Committee, and is tasked with reviewing the data at the district level, comparing it with other district, state and national level data on a regular basis and aiding the local administration to facilitate public health actions and containment measures.

Each TEC will consist of one senior specialist in public health, a district surveillance officer, a senior pulmonologist, pediatrician, obstetrician, microbiologist, a surveillance medical officer, and a senior Ayush practitioner.

The committees which shall be constituted immediately will meet at least fortnightly, said the notification.

The state, although contemplating much more stringent measures post August 15, has now announced no such rules as of today.

Schools for classes 9 and 10 will be reopened in districts which have a positivity rate of less than 2 per cent from 23 August, although attendance for offline classes hasn't been mandatory.

Students have been advised to carry their own food and water. Schools are required to make provisions for boiled water and mark common areas with boxes that ensure social distancing.

As per the fresh SOPs issued by the Department of Primary and Secondary Education, students are to be grouped in small batches of 15-20 to avoid crowding.

Classes will only be held for half a day with seating arrangements to be made maintaining social distancing.

Border districts like Dakshina Kannada, which showed a surge in cases owing to rising numbers in Kerala, had imposed stricter rules and will continue to keep schools shut.

In Kodagu too, the district administration has mandated negative RT-PCR reports for those entering from neighbouring Kerala. Primary and secondary contact-tracing of positive cases has been intensified in seven districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Hassan, Mysuru, Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, and Chamarajanagara, where the positivity rate is on a scale of 3-4 per cent.

Bengaluru Urban tops the total positivity cases at 12,33,172 cases so far, although on Monday, it stood second with 270 new cases while Dakshina Kannada reported 284 cases.

And in preparation for a possible third wave, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is launching ‘Palike Vaidyaru Namma Mane Bagilige’ (Palike Doctors at your door) — its door-to-door doctor campaign — a mega effort to check and monitor citizens in the capital for Covid symptoms.

The initiative will be rolled out in two phases, as reported. Two wards each from the 28 Assembly constituencies will be first chosen for the first phase of this mega checkup programme.

A team of five members will visit every house and survey a minimum of 50 houses everyday.

Each ward will have five teams carrying out this survey, and will take note of possible cases, profile of citizens, comorbidities and vaccination status.

A total of 1,065 new Covid-19 cases and 28 deaths were reported in the state on Monday, taking the total case count to 29,30,529 and the fatalities so far to 37,007.

The case fatality rate in the state stands at 2.62 per cent while the test positivity rate for Monday (17 August) was at 0.93 per cent.