Karnataka To Build Memorial For Covid Martyred Doctors In Bengaluru

In a bid to honour all the white coat warriors who laid down their lives serving people this covid season, Karnataka will build a memorial commemorating their sacrifice.

Minister for Health and Medical Education Dr K Sudhakar made the announcement in Bengaluru on the occasion of Doctor’s Day on Thursday.

The memorial will be the first of its kind in the country and be built at the Arogya Soudha in capital city.

“Only soldiers who died during the war are being referred as martyrs. More than 700 doctors have died during their Covid duty. Since doctors and Health warriors are died during the war against Covid-19, they are also been referred as martyrs,” said Sudhakar.

”A model will be designed soon and will be inaugurated by the Chief Minister. Families of the martyred families can come and pay respect to the memorial on a fixed day,” he added.

Equating it to war memorials, Sudhakar said this memorial will allow people to pay homage to these medical personnel who died serving the interests of the people of the country.

Including its recent record recruitment of 1,763 medical officers, Karnataka has appointed 4000 doctors in total to aid pandemic handling, with 2050 appointed on one year compulsory rural service and over 1000 appointed to medical colleges. The stipend too has been increased by 30 - 40 per cent This pandemic season.

Warning people attacking Doctors of strict legal action, Sudhakar said “people should not take the law into their own hands. It is a punishable offence with upto 5-7 years of imprisonment”. Sudhakar also committed for the upgradation of 250 public health centres in the state this year.

The state which still has some of its districts under half-day lockdown until July 5 has seen a decline in cases. With increasing vaccination count, and reduction in cases, the lockdown may be eased after 5 July say reports, with representatives of malls and shopping complexes having made representations recently to the Chief Minister.

The state has administered 2,29,07,515 doses upto 9 pm on 1 July. While the active cases count stands at 65312, the new cases reported on Wednesday were 3203. The case fatality rate for 30 June stood at 2.93 per cent with the pandemic having claimed 35,134 lives in the state so far.