Karnataka health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao suggested the senior citizens of the state with co-morbidities to wear masks as the number of Covid cases see a rise in neighboring Kerala. He also said that the state government is closely monitoring the situation in Kerala and is equipped with everything that is required to face any situation.
Speaking at Kodagu, the health minister said, “We will issue a detailed advisory soon and discussed regarding the same in a meeting. People over 60 years in the state with co-morbidities wear masks as a precautionary measure. The state government has ordered all hospitals of the districts surrounding Kerala to be alert and equipped. We will also increase the number of tastings that are being conducted.”
The minister also urged people not to panic as the situation is completely under control.
Rao is set to meet with the Technical Advisory Committee on Covid today. The committee is led by Dr K Ravi, the head of the Department of Medicine at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI). “We should be prepared and not allow a disaster to happen. We were not prepared in the past, but after having experienced it, we should gear up now itself,” Rao said.
The Union ministry of health on Saturday has initiated preparedness measures after a case of the JN.1 subvariant of COVID has been identified in Kerala as part of the ongoing routine surveillance conducted by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG).
