The Karnataka Government on Tuesday decided to increase the salaries of Ayush doctors for the next six months.
The decision was taken in the Task Force Committee meeting chaired by Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Tuesday.
"Ayush doctors to get Rs 48,000 monthly salary, MBBS doctors to get Rs 80,000 and nurses to get Rs 30,000 monthly salary for the next six months," Dr K Sudhakar said.
Apart from that, four lakh antigen test kits and five lakh swab test kits would be purchased to ramp up testing in the state.
"As many as 16 RT-PCR and 15 Automated RNA extraction units will be established to ramp up testing. This will help to achieve the target of 50,000 tests per day," Sudhakhar said.
The government also fixed the rate for COVID tests in private labs to Rs 2,000 for government referred cases and 3,000 for self-reporting cases.
"Strict action will be initiated against private hospitals which charge more than the fixed rates for COVID testing," the minister said.
"Private hospitals will provide treatment under the Ayushman Bharat - Arogya Karnataka (ABARK) scheme for COVID patients. Those cases in which treatment does not cover under the scheme can be charged as per the user charges," he added.
The government said oxygen pipeline will be connected to 4,736 beds in 17 government medical colleges. This will enable a high flow of oxygen for these beds and beneficial for future use as well.
"Remdesivir, which is currently available in the government hospitals, will be supplied to private hospitals through the government. This will help to curb black marketing of this drug," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )