Karnataka to set up makeshift hospitals to tide over COVID demand
Bengaluru: Amid explosion of COVID-19 cases in Karnataka, the state government has decided to set up makeshift hospitals with ICU and ventilator here and elsewhere in a fortnight and ordered the private facilities to reserve 80 per cent of the beds for coronavirus patients.
Addressing reporters here on Saturday, state Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said, "Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa took an important decision on Friday to set up 2,000-bed makeshift ICU with ventilators within the campus of the tertiary care hospitals in Bengaluru."
Besides, makeshift hospitals with modular ICU with a capacity of about 250 beds will be established in Mysuru, Hubballi, Bidar, Belagavi and Shivamogga.
"We have decided to set up these hospitals in a fortnight. You all know that we may have to import various equipment including ventilators..," the Minister said.
According to him, a decision has been taken to increase the number of government beds for COVID from the existing 50 per cent to 80 per cent.
"Most probably, the order will be issued by the end of the day," Sudhakar said.
On the current wave of COVID, he said the trends have baffled the medical world and the rising coronavirus cases in India shows that a new variant has emerged in the country.
"Other countries too faced the second wave, but the one in India is neither the UK, Brazil nor any other variant.
In fact, the foreign countries are calling it the second wave of Indian strain and are doing genomic sequencing."
Last year the demand for oxygen was not so high, but now people are suddenly complaining about breathing problems and demanding the life-saving gas.
"Last time when our cases were at the peak, we used only 300 to 350 tonnes of oxygen. This time we have already utilised 500 tonnes of oxygen.
You can understand if this goes up, how the oxygen can become deficient," he added.
He recalled Yediyurappa asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to supply around 1,500 tonnes of oxygen for the next month.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
