BENGALURU: Eighteen new cases were reported in Karnataka on Thursday, bringing the state's tally to 443. Nine of them from Bengaluru were all contacts of a 54-year-old migrant worker from Bihar with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness symptoms who had tested positive earlier.
A resident of Hongasandra, the scrap yard worker lived with four roommates while five other neighbours stayed in close proximity in shed like houses.
The area was sealed off on Wednesday night itself, confirmed Dr BK Vijendra, Chief Health Officer, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, and Minister Suresh Kumar, who is the spokesperson on COVID-19. 300 people living nearby were checked for fever.
Anil Kumar, BBMP Commissioner, said they are closely monitoring the situation in the area.
"He had fever and went to Venu health care centre where he was treated for typhoid. He became better initially but developed chest pain later, which is when he approached Jayadeva Hospital and took some treatment. However, he developed respiratory issues and went to Victoria, from where he was redirected to Rajiv Gandhi Insitute of Chest Diseases," said a BBMP official.
The people who got the infection from him are three 30-year-old males, a 22 year-old male, a 40-year-old male, a 25-year-old male, a 37-year-old male, a 43-year-old male and a 24-year-old male from Bengaluru urban.
Minister Suresh Kumar said that 140 people were quarantined in connection to this case. However, MLA Satish Reddy and Corporator Bharati Ramachandra said more people were picked up in the morning, bringing the total number to 188. There was no issue faced by the authorities while attempting to quarantine people.
"Action will be taken against the private hospital for not alerting officials about the worker from Bihar," he said. Sources said that 3 hospital staff from Venu health centre, 1 helper and 1 doctor were also quarantined. Some of the people quarantined have been sent for testing to RGICD and CV Raman General Hospital.
Another separate case of a 41-year-old male was reported from Bengaluru. He was a contact of another patient.
Two other cases were reported from Vijayapura, including a 32-year-old male who got infected by an earlier patient and a 25-year-old female whose contact tracing is in progress.
This 25-year-old woman is a PG student who worked in BLDE hospital and treated Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) patients, after which she contracted the virus. BLDE hospital staff along with the district administration are tracing her primary and secondary contacts. She lived and studied in the BLDE college campus.
Two cases were also reported from Hubballi-Dharwad district including a 30-year-old female and a 13-year-old female, both of whom were contacts of a patient who tested positive earlier.
A lone case was reported from Bantwala, Dakshina Kannada, of a 78-year-old woman who was a contact of a patient who tested positive earlier.
Two other cases were reported from Mandya -- a 47-year-old male who was a contact of two other patients and a 28-year-old female who was a contact of another patient.
Another case was confirmed from Kalaburagi of a 32-year-old male who was the contact of patient 413.
Kumar in the press meet said that a task force will be set up for COVID-19 at the village level
Meanwhile, 14 patients were discharged today including 9 from Bidar, 3 from Ballari, 1 from Chikkaballlapur and 1 from Bengaluru
Minister Suresh Kumar in a press meet on Thursday said that non-COVID dialysis patients, who could not visit district hospitals as 23 of them have been dedicated for COVID-19, can now approach 45 private hospitals and get covered under the Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka scheme. There are 143 dialysis centres in the state excluding the 23 district hospitals.
100 samples will be tested from the 10 non-COVID districts. Of 4631 samples taken so far, zero have tested positive, while 3146 have tested negative.
District-wise break-up of cases
Bengaluru urban-101
Mysuru-88
Belagavi-43
Vijayapura-37
Kalaburagi-36
Bagalkote-21
Chikkaballapura-16
Dakshina Kannada-16
Bidar-15
Mandya-14
Ballari-13
Bengaluru Rural-12
Uttara Kannada-11
Dharwad-9
Gadag-4
Udupi-3
Davanagere-2
Tumakuru-2
Chitradurga-1
Kodagu-1
Total-445