BENGALURU : Just when Karnataka was seeing a consistent dip in Covid-19 numbers, the recent rush in markets, temples and commercial spaces has resulted in symptoms showing up among those who were not infected. This, after several warnings from the State government.
Government and private hospitals in the city are seeing patients with a history of visiting markets for festive shopping. However, the authorities maintain that it is too early to say if there has been an increase in Covid cases.
“We have been seeing a few patients with symptoms. However, we are not sure if this can be attributed so early to a post-festive effect. We will have to wait for some more days,” explained a senior doctor from Victoria Hospital.
It may be noted that immediately after the Varamahalakshmi and Ganesha festivals, there was a surge in Covid cases in the entire state.
“Increase in cases was expected, and that was the reason why the central government also issued orders. However, social distancing and wearing of masks was ignored to a large extent, especially in market areas. This could be dangerous for the city,” explained a senior epidemiologist.
Meanwhile, some private hospitals in South Bengaluru have stated that they have patients who had visited K R Market and Sarakki market for festival shopping, and ended up with high fever, cold and cough.
“Their samples were taken for testing. We found two positive patients and there are a few patients whose family members have also come down with symptoms.
We are testing them too,” said Dr Gopikrishna, physician with a private hospital in South Bengaluru.
However, some government hospitals like Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD),
Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital and Charaka Hospital have not seen an increase in cases, post festival.
“We have so far not seen any such trend or cases with history of visit to markets. We have to wait and watch. In fact, numbers have been decreasing in the past 10 days,” said Dr Manoj Kumar, Director, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital.
With the festive season, people had become highly complacent, with a false sense of confidence that they were safe from Covid. It may be noted that post-festival season had seen a rise in cases in Delhi, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.