BENGALURU: Could intense campaigning for the Assembly bypolls at Sira (Tumakuru district) and Rajarajeshwari Nagar (Bengaluru) have led to a spurt in Covid-19 cases in these two constituencies?
To check any such spread, Health officials plan to conduct random tests in the two constituencies after polling on Tuesday.
"The random tests are necessary as a number of politicians from all political parties visited the constituencies and held public rallies that were attended by large crowds over the last 15 days," officials said.
"The number of cases has come down in Karnataka and Bengaluru. But public rallies at the two constituencies may trigger a spurt. We have to conduct the tests to check Covid spread," said a BBMP official, requesting anonymity.It is suspected that the number of cases may go up as people attended public meetings without masks or maintaining social distancing, an official from Sira said. "Tests are planned after the polling day so that they don't impact the poll results," the BBMP official said.
The RR Nagar constituency has over 4.5 lakh voters, while Sira has 2.2 lakh. Even if half of them turn up for voting, the number of people at polling booths would be large. Allaying any fears, Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar told TNIE that all Covidprecautions are in place and polling booths have been sanitised.
Arrangements have been made to check the temperature of voters and hand sanitiser placed at strategic spots. "If the government is conducting tests for the public in these constituencies, polling staff will be included too," he said.