Builder Avinash Prabhu arrested for duping people of Rs 100 crore; Range Rover, Audi seized

Bengaluru, Jul 7: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Tuesday held a meeting with a team of officials from the Union Health Ministry in Bengaluru in view of COVID-19 pandemic.

The team of Union Health Ministry officials praised the state's COVID-19 management measures.

Arti Ahuja, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health, EMR director Ravindran met the Chief Minister during a two-day visit to the state. The team praised the State Government's efforts to gather information and identify co-morbid figures for the control of COVID-19.

During the meeting, it was discussed that in the following days, priority should be given to prevent death from COVID-19 and to provide adequate treatment for symptomatic infections.

In addition, Central team officials suggested that the COVID-19 guidelines should be followed in containment zones.

Officials informed about the steps being taken to treat COVID infected people in the state and stated that the High Flow Oxygen System is being implemented in all district hospitals and taluk hospitals in the state.  The process will be completed by August 15.

Health Minister B. Sriramulu, Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar, Chief Secretary to Government Vijayabhaskar and other senior officials were present during the meeting.

Bengaluru, Mar 11: The Insurance Regulatory Authority of India has asked insurers to settle all claims related to coronavirus expeditiously under existing health policies that provide for treatment of hospitalisation expenses.

It has also asked insurers to design products covering the cost of treatment of coronavirus that has fast spread across the world and also resulted in increasing number of infections in India. There has been over 3,000 deaths globally and 58 cases tested positive in India.

In order to provide need-based health insurance coverage, insurers are intro ducing products for various specific diseases, including vector borne diseases. "For the purpose of meeting health insurance requirements of various sections, insurers are advised to design products covering the costs of treatment for coronavirus," the IRDAI said in a circular.

The regulator said that under existing health insurance policies where hospitalisation is covered, not only the cases related to coronvirus disease (COVID-19) shall be expeditiously handled, but all the costs of admissible medic al expenses during the course of treatment, including the treatment during quarantine period, should be settled in accordance to the applicable terms and conditions of policy contract and the extant regulatory framework.

This would bring much needed relief to policy holders some of whom were facing difficulty in getting coverage for treatment takers to coronavirus. In the absence of clear information, a few hospitals were reportedly denying for forward such claims of policy holders to the insurers.

IRDAI has now said that all the claims reported under COVID-19 shall be thoro ughly reviewed by review committee before repudiating the claims. This would prevent blanket rejection of such claims.

But to get full claim for treatment of coronavirus, industry experts said, a person should be hospitalised at least for 24 hours. Most insurers do not c over outpatient treatment.

Udupi, May 16: Close on the heels of six Covid-19 cases being detected in a little over 24 hours, Udupi recorded its first death of a Covid-19 patient. The victim is a 54-year-old man from Mumbai, who died due to a heart attack on Thursday. His reports came back on Saturday, and confirmed that he had Covid-19. The Udupi district administration has arranged to carry out his last rites as per government designated guidelines for Covid-19 victims.

A medical bulletin issued by the superintendent of Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, stated that the patient was admitted due to a heart-related issue on May 13.

Some members on the team that treated the patient have been quarantined. The hospital’s emergency department will operate as usual, and the outpatient department will operate as usual from 8.30am to 1pm, following government guidelines, the bulletin said. Deputy commissioner G Jagadeesha said that since the patient was from Mumbai, the authorities collected his swab sample for testing, as a precautionary measure.

The man suffered from chest pain, and was initially taken to the taluk hospital at Kundapur from where he was shifted to Kasturba Hospital, due to the seriousness of his condition. The doctors operated on him on May 13, and he suffered a severe heart attack on May 14 and died, the DC said. “Three hospital staff without PPE kits, who attended to the patient, have been quarantined,” the DC said, adding that the operating doctors and nurses had worn PPE kits.

In addition, 5 others who travelled with the person from Mumbai and 57 people with him at the Kundapur isolation centre, have been designated as primary contacts, and 38 others as secondary contacts, and quarantined. The staff at Kundapur taluk hospital too had taken precautions in handling the patient, the DC said. Udupi presently has six active cases, including a 1-year-old child and 5 others, all of whom returned from Dubai on May 12.