BENGALURU: Rajarajeshwari Nagar, with 569 Covid-19 cases, has topped the list of wards in Bengaluru with the highest number of coronavirus cases as of August 28, according to the data released by the state covid war room. It is followed by Uttarahalli with 542 cases. Officer in-charge Munish Moudgil said that there are discrepancies in the data as several patients have given incorrect or old house addresses.
The BBMP has made sharing of address proof and OTP verification mandatory for people during Covid swab collection at government and private labs across the city. The decision was taken after several instances of discrepancies in address and phone numbers of Covid-positive patients, making it impossible for the city administration to track, trace and isolate them.
“Despite the move, discrepancies continue. The initiative is only to help contact Covid patients through mobile verification. We have relaxed the need to produce the address proof as a large number of people may not be able to do it, and may miss testing,” he said.But officials of RR Nagar denied any discrepancies and attributed the high numbers to increased testing. “Every day, we are conducting about 60-80 RT-PCR tests to ensure both primary and secondary contacts are traced. In our entire zone, only 22 people currently require oxygen, while 90 per cent are mild to moderate symptomatic patients. But it is still difficult for us to find the source of their infection,” said Dr R Vishal, zonal joint commissioner, BBMP.
Srinath Babu H R, Director, RR Nagar Welfare Association, said, “The problem is with the people. I am part of the Covid quarantine team here. Despite officials and our team telling people to stay quarantined, they do not listen,” he said. Nalini M Manju, BBMP corporator of ward 160, said, “Many residents are coming back from other states and countries since the lockdown rules were lifted. Despite a high number of cases, people are recovering and we have reported very few deaths in our area.”