Bengaluru, Dec 20 (UNI) One person in the state died in Bengaluru city due to Covid five days ago, Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundurao said, amidst an increasing number of Covid cases in some parts of the country.
He, however, did not confirm whether the cause of death was JN1, a sub-variant of Coronavirus.
“One (death) has taken place. He was 64 years old man. He died on 15th December, five days back. We do not know whether his death was caused by JN1 sub-variant.
“However, he was suffering from other diseases too. He was suffering from hypertension, lung disease, bronchial asthma, heart failure, pneumonia and also was COVID-19 positive,” he told reporters here in a press conference.
The deceased was a resident of Chamrajpet in Bengaluru city, the minister said. However, he appealed to the people not to be under a spell of fear and also directed the private and public health workers to wear masks. “We advise 60-plus old people to wear masks to avoid getting infected with Covid,” he said.
Gundurao said the state government intends to increase testing to ascertain the rate of COVID-19 infection. “The government wants to increase this number to 5,000 tests per day in the next three days,” he said.
RT-PCR testing has been made mandatory for all severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and at least 1 in 20 cases of influenza-like illness, the minister added.
Gundurao said Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Technical Advisory Committee will hold a meeting on Thursday, in which steps and preparations will be discussed.
Earlier, the Chief Minister virtually attended the meeting of the Union Health Minister with the Health Ministers and representatives of all the states, Center and State, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), officials of NITI Aayog and others.
He said that more testing and genome sequencing is needed to know about the spread of the infection. Instructions have been issued to conduct more testing, especially in the border districts of Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu, Chamarajanagar and Mysuru.
On Tuesday, the Karnataka government issued an advisory asking people above 60 years of age, suffering from serious diseases, pregnant women and lactating mothers to wear masks when going out of the house.
The advisory also asked people to avoid going to closed, poorly ventilated places and crowded areas. In this, reference was made to the case of sub-variant JN1 coming to light in the neighboring state of Kerala.
