B’luru clinics shut for not reporting Covid symptoms

BENGALURU: Karnataka’s Health Department has shut down four city clinics for not reporting Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) cases, which are Covid symptoms, an official said on Sunday.

“We have shut four Bengaluru clinics for not reporting ILI and SARI cases,” a health official said.

The clinics are Namma Clinic at Sahakaranagar, Panchamukhi Specialty Clinic at Peenya 2nd Stage, Mathru Chaya Clinic at Sudhama Nagar in Bommanahalli and Nayak Hospital in Gayathri Nagar.

“We gave notice to 17 clinics for not reporting ILI and SARI medical conditions in patients. Out of the 17, 13 reverted that they did not do and will start reporting,” said the official.

However, the four named clinics did not revert leading to their shutdown.

According to the official, the clinics failed to adhere to the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1987, Disaster Management Act, 2005 and others.

All medical facilities and hospitals should report all patients with ILI and SARI symptoms as many Covid positive cases have them as underlying conditions.

Masks can reduce the growth rate of coronavirus infection by 40%, a paper on the impact of the staggered use of masks in public places in different cities and municipalities in Germany has found.

After the city of Jena made it mandatory on April 6 to wear masks, new confirmed Covid-19 infections reduced by 25% compared to that in a group with similar demographics, local health care systems and pre-april Covid-19 levels, the analysis found. The findings were released on Friday. “Depending on the region we analyse, we found that face masks reduced the cumulative number of registered Covid-19 cases between 2.3% and 13% over a period of 10 days after they became compulsory. Assessing the credibility of the various estimates, we conclude that face masks reduce the daily growth rate of reported infections by around 40%,” said the discussion paper by IZA Institute of Labor Economics in Bonn, Germany.

The long incubation period of the Covid-19 infection, among other factors, contribute to its spread, according to experts. Symptoms appear on average after four to five days of getting infected, according to a study published in March in The Annals of Internal Medicine. In this period, patients might not

FACILITIES MUST REPORT ALL PATIENTS WITH ILI AND SARI SYMPTOMS AS MANY CASES HAVE THEM AS UNDERLYING CONDITIONS