BENGALURU: Mahadevapura zone in Bengaluru, which had relatively fewer cases compared to the rest of the city until September, now has one of the highest numbers in the city’s eight zones. In the past 10 days, the zone’s share of positive cases has been 19%, and officials attribute the rise to resumption of economic activity and increased testing.
According to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike war room data, the South and East zones made 15% each of the city’s cases, West and Bommanahalli zones 14%, RR Nagar 10%, Yelahanka 9% and Mahadevapura 19%, and Dasarahalli 4%.
Dr N Manjula, Special Officer of Mahadevapura zone, attributed the rise to increased testing. “Earlier the number of tests per day was only 2,000. Now, the testing target has been fixed at about 7,000 tests per day, but in Mahadevapura, we are testing over 8,000 people. There are many camps where returning labourers and migrants live, which have added to the cases.
As they live together, if one person tests positive, the very next day 10 more people from the same camp test positive. Just like Bommanahalli zone, we have many camps where industry and factory workers live, and the chances of them testing positive are high. So, we are focussing on testing more in such areas.”
She also said that there is a daily increase in the absolute number.
“But what one needs to focus on, is the positivity rate which is on the lower side. “In the past 14 days, Mahadevapura’s positivity rate has been 4.97%, which is among the lowest along with South and West zones. Other zones are seeing a positivity rate of over 5%,” said Dr Manjula.
A BBMP health officer from the zone said that the jump in cases was also due to the reopening of IT companies. “Some companies are open and people working together would have resulted in many asymptomatic cases.
We are seeing more cases in Bellandur, Doddanekundi and Horamavu, and are keeping a track of these areas. Another reason is that people aren’t maintaining distance. On some days we collect up to Rs 50,000 in fines from people who don’t wear masks, but still, many people simply don’t follow the norms,” he said.