Bengaluru: Taluk health officer of Mysuru’s Nanjangud, Dr SR Nagendra, allegedly committed suicide at his residence in Alanahalli on Thursday owing to pressure from higher officials. The incident prompted the government to announce immediate measures to ease the pressure on overburdened doctors, health staff and officials.

Nagendra’s family members and his colleagues alleged that he took his life because of work pressure. As tension mounted at Nagendra’s funeral, medical education minister K Sudhakar made a series of tweets assuring family members of justice and announcing a slew of measures to reduce the stress levels of Covid warriors.

“It has come to the notice of the government that Covid warriors are under severe stress and anxiety. From here on, the government will ensure they get leave and we will take steps to relieve the pressure,” Sudhakar tweeted.

STATE ADDS 7,385 CASES

The state added 7,385 Covid cases to its tally, taking the total cases to 256,975. Of the newly reported cases, 2,912 were from Bengaluru Urban.

With 6,231 people recovering and getting discharged in the past 24 hours, active cases in the state stood at 82,149. The state also recorded 102 deaths on account of Covid-19, including 25 in Bengaluru.

The number of Covid tests fell marginally to about 60,000 in the past one day. Of these, 33,614 were RT-PCR tests.