What went wrong in K’taka Covid management strategy?

Bengaluru On March 9, 2020, Dr K Sudhakar, Karnataka’s medical education minister (and now also health and family welfare) had a slightly different tone than at present in the regular Covid-19 press briefings in Vidhana Soudha

Bengaluru On March 9, 2020, Dr K Sudhakar, Karnataka’s medical education minister (and now also health and family welfare) had a slightly different tone than at present in the regular Covid-19 press briefings in Vidhana Soudha.

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Though the briefings had become a regular affair, there was an air of confidence among the ministers and officials of the BS Yediyurappa-led administration until that day, believing that it had done better than its counterparts so far.

Karnataka had confirmed its very first infection . A software engineer with a travel history to the USA had tested positive almost one and half months after the first case in the country was detected in neighbouring Kerala at the end of January.

The state government, in a matter of a day, had told the media that 2,666 persons were identified as possible contacts of this person.

Fast forward to 2021, and the situation was very different as politics preceded the pandemic and complacency dominated the government, which was preparing for the April 17 bypolls in Belagavi, Basavakalyan and Maski.

The warnings of a government-appointed technical advisory committee (TAC) in November fell on deaf ears of the political class, who were now all set for the polls.

For Yediyurappa, these by-polls were personal while the Congress, the principal opposition party in the state, were also just as determined to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

All rules of social distancing and masks went up in smoke as thousands gathered around these political leaders and carried out campaigns as though the pandemic was left behind with the turn of the year.

In the beginning of March, Karnataka recorded 349 new infections and five deaths, taking the active caseload to 5,824 and death toll to 12,336. A week later, Sudhakar formally acknowledged the onset of the second wave.

By the end of March, Karnataka reported 4,225 new infections in a single day and 26 deaths.

“Definitely there was preparedness this time but it was not enough. The spread was so fast that it was three to four times compared to the first wave,” Sudhakar told Hindustan Times in an interview on April 25.

While new infections continued to rise, the clamour around the elections also grew with political leaders taking out huge rallies and addressing large gatherings. Within the government, ministers wrangled each other to reign over the other, forcing Yediyurappa to change the head of the Covid task force at least three times, owing to pressure from within his own ministers.

“There was a battle for one upmanship,” said a BJP legislator, requesting not to be named.

All this while people scrambled to get hospital beds for their ailing relatives as healthcare facilities started to see a surge of patients. Soon people were dying due to lack of treatment, oxygen, medicines and scrambling for a slot at the overcrowded crematoriums that were overflowing with the dead.

At one point, there were less than 20 ICU beds available in Bengaluru, the largest city in the state that has significantly higher healthcare infrastructure when compared to other parts of the state.

Tejasvi Surya, the MP from Bengaluru south, along with three other BJP legislators, stormed into a Covid war room in the first week of May, alleging that 17 Muslims, among the over 200 who worked in that facility were involved in a “bribe for bed” scam.

Though the scam was seen as a direct attack on Yediyurappa’s administration, it also had a communal angle to it.

In less than a day, news reports flooded TV screens that Satish Reddy, one of the BJP legislators who stormed into the war room, was the alleged kingpin of the scam.

“Instead of setting right the allegations made by the MP and the MLAs, the chief minister saw it as a personal attack and started to target them,” said a two-time BJP legislator, requesting not to be named. Between the last week of April and the first week of May, Karnataka had seen its daily infections cross 50,000 per day.

At this point, requests for hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, life-saving medicine and other favors flooded social media, emphasising how the inadequate healthcare system was overwhelmed. The glaring unpreparedness of the government was also evident.

One was the announcement of restrictions and then relapsing into a lockdown, which Yediyurappa had until the first week of April, said was “not an option”, largely considering the fledgling economy of the state.

Karnataka has enforced lockdown-like restrictions since the beginning of April, which was later intensified from April 26 and is now scheduled to end on June 14, leaving people stranded with no income or relief.

“Last year we used our savings to tide over the lockdown. This year we have nothing,” said Syed Ahmed, an auto driver with Uber.

Unlike the first wave, volunteer work was more towards securing hospital beds, medicines, oxygen and cremation as against food relief during the first wave.

Shops were open from 6 am to 10 am, which ensured people could buy groceries but no income.

Karnataka has announced ₹1750 crore (total in two tranches) financial package on June 3, that provides relief ranging from ₹2000-Rs5000 aimed at sections hardest hit by the pandemic.

“This doesn’t even cover a month’s rent. Then there are other utility bills, groceries and other daily needs. We demanded at least ₹10,000 to be deposited in each of their accounts,” Ramalinga Reddy, the working president of the Congress party said on Wednesday.

The Yediyurappa government is now preparing to relax restrictions but has paid some attention towards the imminent third wave of infections, expected by the end of the year.

With the clamour for a change in leadership, it is quite likely that Yediyurappa will once again prioritise politics over the pandemic, as he has been accused in the past by his own partymen.