How Karnataka is losing its advantage in the fight against COVID-19

File Image

Visuals of dead bodies wrapped in PPEs being flung into large open pits, elderly persons with COVID-19 symptoms collapsing to death in front of their homes after waiting for hours for the elusive ambulances, patients gasping for breath being denied admission by multiple hospitals because they have no beds to spare….with these images playing out on television over the last few days, the reputation of Karnataka and its capital city Bengaluru has suddenly taken a severe beating.

As the number of positive cases in Bengaluru city more than doubled in the past few days this month from 4,555 to 10,561, and the death toll mounted rapidly to 157 as on July 6,  thousands of panic-stricken residents took to the exit points, even as the state government declared a 36-hour lockdown until July 6 morning.

Other metropolitan cities in India, no doubt, have fared much worse, but Bengaluru’s unique problem needs to be put in perspective. Being the high-tech capital of India and putting technology to good use to fight the pandemic, Bengaluru had done extremely well in containing the outbreak — until recently.

However, the city let its guard down, and is being made to pay a heavy price.

Until mid-June, Bengaluru was regarded as among the best performing cities in the world with a population of over 10 million. At a time when Mumbai had 60,000 positive cases and 3,167 deaths, Delhi 44,000 cases and 1,837 deaths, and Chennai 34,000 cases and 422 deaths, Bengaluru had a mere 827 positive cases and 43 deaths.

It was the result of a systematic and meticulous handling of the pandemic in the beginning. Almost a week before a national lockdown was declared on March 25, Karnataka began screening people coming from outside the state and sending those showing COVID-19 symptoms to a 14-day institutional quarantine.

Victoria Hospital, the largest super-specialty hospital in the state, was dedicated only to COVID-19 cases, and a high-tech ‘war room’ was established to monitor and control all critical activities concerning the epidemic. The data teams churned out daily analysis and trends for the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) officials to act upon.

Every case of suspected COVID-19 was taken seriously, and between February and April, on an average, Karnataka traced and tested 93 contacts per confirmed case compared to the national average of 19. The primary and secondary contacts had to compulsorily undergo institutional quarantine.

The state also developed six apps for functions ranging from contact tracing to quarantine watch and from tracking new arrivals to monitoring of critical patients, with extensive use of local citizens as volunteers. Epidemiologists say that key to Bengaluru’s success was that the political leadership set up a task force of experts at a very early stage and its recommendations were followed meticulously.

The trouble began with the unlocking of the state borders.

Thousands of Kannadigas who have migrated to neighbouring Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, along with many from other states who have settled or work in Karnataka, started trooping in through the porous borders. With such a large influx and general lowering of watchfulness, the tracing and tracking of likely carriers went for a toss.

When Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar was put in charge of COVID-19 management, Heath Minister B Srimulu was upset and threatened to resign. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa divided the work between the two; but when they began issuing contradictory statements, he brought in a third minister, S Suresh Kumar, to conduct daily media briefing. Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan and Revenue Minister R Ashoka made their displeasure known as they had been ignored despite their seniority.

As the cases started rising alarmingly, Yediyurappa worked out a compromise formula whereby Narayan is entrusted with setting up and managing the COVID-19 control centres, Ashoka is tasked with co-ordinating the allocation of beds in private hospitals and Sudhakar with maintaining the COVID-19 war room, formulating policy guidelines and interacting with the media.

Unfortunately, though Karnataka has a large number of medical colleges with full-fledged hospitals as well as super-speciality private hospitals, until recently, the government had not bothered to alert and prepare them to handle COVID-19-related patients. In the last fortnight, it has scrambled together around 5,000 beds, including 3,300 beds in Bengaluru city which are hardly sufficient.

Yediyurappa must have realised by now that one can never rest on one’s laurels and resorting to another round of lockdown can only prove counter-productive. He should know that his government must act swiftly on several fronts if Bengaluru were not to go the Mumbai or the Delhi way.

Ramakrishna Upadhya is a senior journalist. Views are personal