All Bengaluru symptomatic cases need immediate examination: Minister

Amid rising Covid cases in the city, all patients with Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Covid symptoms should immediately undergo medical examination at nearby hospitals, a minister said on Friday.

"Most of the people come to hospitals in serious condition and it would not be possible to give them effective treatment. If somebody has ILI symptoms, it would be advisable for them to rush to the nearest fever testing centres for treatment," said Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar.

He said 50 per cent of the 581 people infected with the virus in this tech city have already recovered and have been discharged.

"People above 60 years of age and having ILI symptoms must be taken to such centres without any delay," he said.

Sudhakar said the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has constituted 800 teams to identify people with symptoms in the city.

"The job of team members is to visit every house in the BBMP limits. This requires the cooperation of the citizens to identify corona affected persons. It would enable treating them in the initial stages itself," he said.

According to the civic body Commissioner B. H. Anil Kumar, BBMP has opened 31 fever clinics, leading to Covid suspects being screened at the primary health centre (PHC) level to avoid further spread.

From March end, the fever clinics have screened as many as 13,351 people, out of whom 481 were referred for further testing which progressed to identifying three positive cases.

Commenting on the rising containment zones, Sudhakar said the categorization and definition has changed for the zones now.

"Hitherto, the entire ward or one km vicinity was declared as containment area. Now, only the house of the affected is declared as a containment area," he said, pointing out that the number of containment wards is not a big number for a city with a population of 1.2 crore.

Sudhakar said it has also been decided to open hospitals to treat non-Covid patients as their numbers are rising.

He said the government-run Bowring hospital will be opened to treat non-Covid patients.

According to the minister, the state government is also considering a proposal to convert big stadiums into quarantine centres in the city.