BHUBANESWAR: As Bhubaneswar achieves new highs with fresh Covid spikes every day, instances of missing source of infection pile up indicating local transmission.
There are several cases at cluster level where Health department as well as Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation are clueless about how the persons were infected.
The latest glaring example is the ICICI Bank case. Two of the bank’s branches at Cuttack road and Shriya Talkies Square have been sealed after detection of 15 positive cases.
On July 5, BMC informed that two bank employees in the city had locally contracted the virus and two days later, the two branches of ICICI were sealed although the civic body couldn’t clarify whether the persons had any link with these branches.
The corporation also failed to provide information on the 15 employees of the bank who have been infected.
As contact tracing team is yet to find the source of infection, Municipal Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary said it is suspected that the transmission may have taken place within the bank as employees deal with many persons every day.
“Contact tracing is underway and employees of the two branches have been put under home quarantine,” Chaudhary said.
The Tech Mahindra Bhubaneswar campus, sealed following detection of seven cases in a week, is another instance where source of infection has remained unknown.
Officials of the IT services firm confirmed that none of their employees had any travel history.
At least 65 employees of the company in the Capital are in home quarantine following the cluster spread. There are a number of other cases including frontline workers of non-Covid hospitals.
An analysis of case details provided by BMC suggests that out of the total positive cases reported in the city in last 10 days, 46 pc cases are local.
Bhubaneswar has recorded at least 236 new Covid-19 cases between June 29 and July 8 of which, 109 cases are local contacts.
The civic body has not been able provide information on source of infection in at least 32 cases.
Chaudhary said BMC will review the scenario on Thursday and take measures to contain the spread of the virus accordingly.