BENGALURU: Just a day after the state recorded no new positive cases of COVID-19 and the number staying at 15, there was a big jump on Saturday, taking the tally to 20 cases. This is the highest number of cases recorded in a single day in Karnataka. While three cases were reported from Bengaluru, the two others were from Mysuru city and Gowribidanur in Chikkaballapur district.
A 53-year-old domestic help, who was attending on Patient 11 (P-11), a chronic kidney patient who had travelled from Dubai to Goa and then to Bengaluru, was found positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. Health officials said that she is a high-risk contact of P-11 and was in strict quarantine, but has now been admitted at an isolation hospital in Bengaluru. She showed symptoms on March 19 and was immediately tested. The woman (Patient 16) would return home every evening. As a precautionary measure, the entire family (husband and two children) is in quarantine and their tests are underway.
A 39-year-old male (Patient 17), who came to Bengaluru from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on March 19 tested positive on Saturday. Another 21-year old male (Patient 18), who arrived in Bengaluru on March 17 from Edinburgh, Scotland, also tested positive. They are now admitted at designated isolation hospitals in Bengaluru. In neighbouring Chikkaballapur district, a 31-year-old man (Patient 19), with travel history to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, also tested positive. He had returned to India on March 14 and is admitted in an isolation hospital. The district administration is now taking steps to contain the village where the patient resided.
His mother is also being tested and, as a preventive measure, she has been quarantined. The Patient 20 is a 35-year-old man from Mysuru who had travelled from Dubai and arrived at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on March 19. From there, he took a taxi to Mysuru and got admitted at KR Hospital. The contact tracing of the taxi driver and the man’s co-passengers on the flight is going on, the authorities said. Health officials said the number of contacts seems to be low as the patient directly got admitted in the hospital.