BENGALURU: After months of a lull, the number of cases in Karnataka is on the upswing again, with Bengaluru making up the largest chunk of cases in the state.
Data shows that the rise in cases in the city is driven by a spike in infections in the South zone of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, which officials attribute to increased testing, non-adherence to Covid norms, and inter-state movement of people.
In the second week of March, the South zone of the BBMP reported a total of 602 new cases, followed by Bommanahalli (500), Mahadevapura (453), East zone (421), West zone (299), RR Nagar (261), Yelahanka (206), and Dasarahalli (68).
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While the second week of March saw 602 new cases, the same period in January and February saw 390 and 219 cases respectively.
Even when the pandemic began, South zone had the highest number of cases, followed by East and West zones.
However, cases started to decline in the rest of the city from September 2020, while the outer zones of city limits, such as Bommanahalli, Mahadevapura, and Dasarahalli witnessed a spike.
Joint Commissioner for South Zone, Veerabhadra Swamy, attributed the jump in infections to increased testing and the movement of interstate travellers.
“The South zone has a population of over 25 lakh people and we are carrying out a higher number of tests compared to other zones. Everyday 6,000 tests are done, and we now plan to increase it to 8,000. With increased testing, we have detected more cases. There have also been cases of inter-state travellers testing positive,” he said.
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South zone also has one of the seven clusters reported in the city so far. The government medical and engineering hostel in Vidyapeetha has eight positive cases.
“The cases in the college were detected on March 12. We have tested the students and only eight were found positive. All the contacts have been traced and tested. We have followed containment measures and there is no spread of infection,” he said.
A health officer from the zone said that people had become lax.
“Physical distancing violations are extremely high, and marshals are fining people. We see many people go about without masks in market areas and we have again started to carry out testings at these spots,” said the official, and urged people to follow norms.