By P.T. Bopanna
The Kodagu (Coorg) district administration in Karnataka has been caught napping as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has exploded with a single day spike of 548 cases on Saturday.
The unprecedented spurt in cases led to chaos at the designated Covid hospital at Madikeri. Due to shortage of staff, there was delay in admitting patients. A video doing the rounds showed two or three people sitting on each bed.
Kodagu Rakshana Vedike president Pavan Pemmaiah said that none of the paediatric doctors had visited the hospital since morning.
Thankfully, there is no oxygen problem because the previous deputy commissioner Annies Joy had taken the initiative last year to start an oxygen plant with a capacity of 13,000 litres. Annies, a qualified nurse, should be commended for her effort in building up the infrastructure for treating Covid patients in the district.
Kodagu district health officer Mohan has been quoted as saying. “We had foreseen cases would cross 500 after May but the cases peaked now itself. People have to follow rules and go for vaccination otherwise it will be difficult to manage the situation. ”
The total number of positive cases reported so far in Kodagu was 8,200, of which 6,603 were discharged. The active case tally stands at 1,506 and the number of dead so far was 91.