Karnataka medical colleges to act as COVID-19 ‘war rooms’

An entire floor will be converted into an isolation zone

17/03/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,BENGALURU

Safety first: A health official conducting a thermal screening test in Bengaluru on Monday. PTIPTI

All government medical colleges in the districts will henceforth act as COVID-19 ‘war rooms’ in Karnataka. An entire floor in these colleges will be converted into a full-fledged isolation zone with 150-250 beds, ICUs and the required number of ventilators, Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar said on Monday.

Private colleges

Briefing presspersons after an emergency meeting with the directors of different government medical colleges, the Minister said private medical colleges would be roped in districts where there were no government medical colleges.

Only 17 districts have government medical colleges in the State.

“In Bengaluru, we are holding talks with various medical colleges such as East Point Medical College, Akash Institute of Medical Sciences and Research and MVJ Medical College. In private hospitals, too, we want to convert one floor into an isolation zone. We want to make sure that we have at least 3,000 beds for isolating patients in Bengaluru,” he asserted.