Bengaluru city moves towards a fortnight-long lockdown with 24,600 active Covid-19 cases as of April 27, 2021 with 16,545 new positive cases reported on April 26.
This lockdown, beginning Tuesday 9 P.M, is a government measure to curb the effects of a failing medical infrastructure, said a Times of India report. The city renowned as a medical tourism spot is now struggling to provide adequate beds in hospitals, coordinating between private hospitals, contact tracing and providing timely test results.
Multiple news reports have talked about complaints against the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) website regarding hospital bed data that is not updated as per real-time availability. As a result, many patients have had to rush from one hospital to the other in search of adequate facilities.
To make matters worse, Deccan Herald reported that the city’s Apollo Hospital was recently booked for illegally blocking beds and forcing a patient’s family to pay Rs 2.49 lakh despite being sent there by the BBMP. An FIR was filed by BBMP medical officer Dr. Nagendra Kumar against six persons including the hospital’s CEO under the Disaster Management Act and other sections of the IPC.
However, private hospitals continue to reduce the availability of beds by other methods such as setting aside nearly 50 percent of them as non-Covid facilities. Further within the half, officials refused to provide beds notified under the government quota.
Meanwhile, an investigative report by The News Minute claimed that, like many other cities across India, there is a discrepancy between the reported and actual Covid-deaths in the city. BBMP officials speaking to the media channel said the error may be due to a delay in data or owing to some deaths in people’s houses.
Health experts speaking to the Times of India, blamed the Karnataka government for these failings. They claimed that the government as well as the city administration became complacent rather than preparing for a second wave of Covid-19. Accordingly, social distancing guidelines laxed and the attention shifted to non-Covid issues and projects.
As per government data, Karnataka recorded a total of 2,81,042 active cases and 14,627 deaths as of Tuesday evening.
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