K'taka districts with high number of COVID cases to get 25 oxygen concentrators: Minister

Districts in Karnataka with more COVID-19 cases will get 25 oxygen concentrators, state Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters here, the Minister said, "the State has received 800 concentrators recently which will be distributed to districts with more cases like Hassan, Mandya, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Chitradurga where there is lack of facilities."

He said the state health department is working out to provide more assistance like ICU facility and oxygen in all medical colleges across the state.

Sudhakar said he would soon tour Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Haveri, Hubballi and Gadag medical colleges this week to review the situation.

The minister also appealed to the district administrations and all public representatives to participate actively in COVID containment activities.

"At present the positivity rate is at 27 per cent. We are aiming to reduce it further by 5 per cent. IIT Kanpur has provided database research inputs to other countries on COVID projections and centre has also advised on this. We are also working on reducing mortality rate," Sudhakar said.

To a question, the minister said the government was not hiding any statistics.

"There is no point in hiding the statistics. We are conducting more than 1.25 lakh tests everyday. We are working to further increase the number and get the report within 24 hours," he said.