Gearing up for third wave, K’taka aims to improve paediatric care

Bengaluru The Karnataka government is aiming to improve paediatric care, strengthen existing healthcare infrastructure and increase its vaccination coverage to prepare for an imminent third wave of Covid-19 infections, according to experts

Bengaluru

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The Karnataka government is aiming to improve paediatric care, strengthen existing healthcare infrastructure and increase its vaccination coverage to prepare for an imminent third wave of Covid-19 infections, according to experts.

“In my opinion there has to be a strong paediatric care task force because we have more adult beds. That (paediatric care) is the most important area that is not covered yet,” Dr CN Manjunath, cardiologist and director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research in Bengaluru told Hindustan Times.

Stating that children (or age groups below 18) are not yet eligible for vaccinations, he added they are likely to be more vulnerable.

Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Monday directed officials to increase preparedness for the imminent third wave. The directions come even as the state continues to grapple with the surging second wave of the pandemic that continues to wreak havoc across the country, infecting and killing thousands each day.

Experts have predicted the third wave around November or December.

Karnataka recorded 39,510 new infections in the 24 hours on Monday that takes the total number of active cases to 587,452. The positivity rate stood at 33.99%, according to the daily bulletin of the state health department.

Bengaluru reported 15,879 new infections, showing a decline for the third straight day and taking the city’s active caseload to 362,696. The state reported 480 new fatalities of which 259 were in Bengaluru, taking the city’s toll to 8,690, the health bulletin said.

Experts said preparations to face the third wave would largely depend on increasing vaccination coverage, which is yet to reach the expected level.

“Vaccination is our biggest weapon to prevent third wave,” K Sudhakar, Karnataka’s minister for health, family welfare and medical education, told HT in an interview recently.

He had said that opening up of vaccinations for age groups between 18 and 44 would help contain the raging pandemic, which has so far claimed 19,852 lives in Karnataka.

However, the vaccination for the 18-44 age group has been sluggish so far, with complaints of not getting slots on Cowin app, shortage of vaccines and overcrowded vaccine centres appearing on a daily basis, which, experts said, has all the makings of another “super spreader” event with hundreds jostling for space in long-winding queues.

Karnataka has so far vaccinated 10,787,970 persons till Monday, according to government data. However, only 2,238,748 of these have received both doses, data shows, indicating that less than 3.5% of the state’s 65 million population have so far been inoculated.

The Yediyurappa government has been unable to match the speed of capacity building of healthcare infrastructure and has also been accused of ignoring warnings by the technical advisory committee in November last year on the imminent second wave.

“The CM has spoken about preparations for the third wave. But first they should have an action plan for people to be saved from the ongoing second wave,” DK Shivakumar, Karnataka Congress president said on Tuesday.

CN Ashwath Narayan, deputy chief minister and head of the Covid task force, on Tuesday said Karnataka would procure an additional 20 million doses of vaccine that would be in addition to the orders already placed.

In a statement, Narayan said this global tender would include procuring 10 million doses of Covaxin and 20 million doses of Covishield.

Karnataka has around 400,000 doses of vaccines left, according to the government. Neighbouring Maharashtra is already pursuing efforts to import vaccines directly. Karnataka, experts said, is exploring these options too.

Manjunath said the country should be looking to vaccinate 10 million persons each day in order to complete the drive before the onset of a possible third wave.

The rapid mutation of the novel coronavirus is adding to the mounting challenges of the state and Union government.

“We do not know what the magnitude of the third wave will be, if there will be another variant, everything is speculation,” Manjunath added.