COVID-19 care: Yediyurappa directs officials to check fleecing by private hospitals

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday directed officials to initiate strict action against hospitals which are submitting false bills in the guise of home care and nursing for COVID-19 patients.

He also asked the officials to crack down on middlemen who were allegedly charging money for allotting government quota of beds in the private hospitals. The Chief Minister’s directions came during a review meeting to check the spread of coronavirus, an official release said.

Yediyurappa underlined the need for telemonitoring to keep a watch on those who were in home isolation. He reminded the officials to increase the RT-PCR tests for detecting COVID-19 and reduce the Rapid Antigen Tests.

The Chief Minister directed the officials to strictly impose masks and social distancing norms in the state capital city to bring down the number of infections, the release said. Karnataka’s COVID-19 cases count stood at 7,35,371 and the death toll at 10,198 as of Wednesday.