People wearing masks.
Credit: DH Photo/S K Dinesh
Bengaluru: Taking stock of the increasing Covid cases in Bengaluru and with New Year celebrations around the corner, the state health department, issued a circular on Thursday, directing the city police and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to ensure that the Covid guidelines are effectively enforced.
Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, in his directions, said that the officials should create awareness and ensure that citizens follow Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB) such as the use of sanitisers and social distancing.
He reiterated that senior citizens and those with comorbidities should wear masks in public places and closed areas. The minister also said that of the 464 active cases in the state, 376 of them are in Bengaluru and four of the nine deaths have been reported from the city.
The circular also noted that the JN.1 subvariant was highly transmissible and hence the hospital admissions among those with lower immunity and comorbidities could be high.
In a separate circular issued by the Health Department, the Commissioner (Health and Family Welfare Department) has directed the officials to ensure that all the symptomatic close contacts of Covid patients must be compulsorily tested.
The circular also directed all public hospitals in the districts to ensure that they establish dedicated Covid isolation wards including some ICU beds.
While the district administration has been asked to ensure that doctors visit all the home isolation patients, those in ICU should be monitored through tele-ICU.
District death audit committee and state death audit committee have also been instructed to conduct a death audit and report the same to the department.