Bengaluru: All hospitals with bed capacity of more than 30 beds to admit COVID-19 patients

Bengaluru, Apr 22: Amid a spike in Covid cases in the state, Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Thursday said that all hospital beds except those for dialysis patients, mother- childcare & life-threatening diseases to be dedicated for COVID patients in Bengaluru.

''All nursing homes & hospitals with up to 30 beds should mandatorily treat non-Covid patients,'' Dr K Sudhakar said while speaking to reporters.

''All hospitals in the state that have a bed capacity of more than 30 beds will now have to dedicate 80% of the beds and ICU facility for COVID19 patients,'' he further said.

Karnataka has reported another biggest single day spike of 23,558 new COVID-19 cases and 116 related fatalities, taking the total caseload 12.22 lakh and the toll to 13,762, the health department said on Wednesday. The state had previously reported its biggest single day spike of 21,794 cases on Tuesday.

Bengaluru Urban alone accounted for 13,640 of the total number of cases. The day also saw 6,412 patients getting discharged after recovery. Cumulatively 12,22,202 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in Karnataka, which includes 13,762 deaths and 10,32,233 discharges,the Health department said in a bulletin.

Out of 1,76,188 active cases, 1,75,284 patients are stable and in isolation at designated hospitals, while 904 are in Intensive Care Units. While the positivity rate for the day stood at 15.47 per cent, the case fatality rate (CFR) was 0.49 per cent. Among 116 deaths reported on Wednesday, 70 were from Bengaluru Urban, Kalaburagi (8), Mysuru (7), Bidar (5), Ballari (4), Hassan (3), followed by others.