BENGALURU: A professional car driver for hire, who had ferried two primary contacts of a COVID-9 positive patient from Vijayapura to Bengaluru and back, came to be counted among the fatalities in the state, taking the toll to 14 on Saturday. The 42-year-old man, the youngest victim so far, died due to a cardiac arrest on Thursday. His test results came back positive for coronavirus on Saturday.
According to Primary and Secondary Education Minsiter S Suresh Kumar, the driver had panicked after he came to know that the two people whom he had brought to the city had tested positive, and this could have led to the cardiac arrest.
“The driver, along with the two primary contacts of a 60-year-old SARI patient, had travelled to Bengaluru and returned with them. After the two tested positive, he was very scared and had a cardiac arrest on April 16 even before his test results came.”
One German needs to be traced, says minister
“It is unfortunate that a young person died due to COVID-19. He may have panicked thinking that he could also be positive and the stress may have led to a cardiac arrest. People should understand that they can recover from this disease. There are many who have already recovered and doing well. There is no need to panic, Karnataka’s death rate is low. It is advisable to heed to doctors.” Meanwhile, the State recorded 25 new cases taking the total to 384. A silver lining is that 104 people have recovered so far and discharged from hospitals.
In Vijayapura, the husband of the 60-year-old SARI patient, was among the two who tested positive for COVID-19. Bagalkot district recorded seven new cases while Mysuru also witnessed seven cases, mostly secondary contacts of Patient 52, who was the first employee of the Nanjangud pharmaceutical company who tested positive.
In Kalaburgi, a 16-year-old boy and a 34-year-old man tested positive. In Hubballi, a 63-year-old male graveyard worker, who was a secondary contact of a 37-year-old patient, tested positive. A 45-year-old man from Hirebagewadi, who is a contact of a 20-year-old from Belagavi who had attended Tablighi Jamat in Delhi, added to Belagavi’s count. Bengaluru saw three new positive cases, all women and contacts of Patient 167, while Gadag and Mandya districts recorded one case each on Saturday.
With regard to the Nanjangud pharmaceutical company case, Minister Suresh Kumar said, “We had identified 10 people who had visited Nanjangud. We had written to the embassies of countries including the USA, Germany, China and Japan to trace those people. Nine of them were traced and all are healthy without any problems. One person from Germany needs to be traced and the process is under way.”
Kumar added that a meeting was held with Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Saturday where it was decided that prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPc will be in place in the state till May 3.
Rapid testing kits
Health and Family Welfare Department Additional Chief Secretary Jawaid Akhtar said, “The 11,400 rapid testing kits which have been procured have been sent to NIMHANS for validation tests after which the virologists there will decide which districts will get more kits, depending on the number of cases.”