BENGALURU: The state witnessed a spike in new coronavirus cases on Friday, with nine confirmed cases, including the 60-year-old man from Tumakuru district (P60), who died. With this, the tally has risen to 64 COVID-19 positive cases.
Meanwhile, the 46-year-old Dell techie (Patient 1), who had returned from the USA on March 1 and had been admitted in the isolation unit of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD), and his 15-year-old daughter (Patient 3) were discharged on Friday. In all, five patients (P1-P5) have been discharged so far.
The new cases are a 10-month-old male child (Patient 56) from Dakshina Kannada with no history of travel to COVID-19- affected countries. As per the preliminary investigation, the child was taken to Kerala by the family.
Six primary contacts have been traced and placed under house quarantine. Another case reported in the district is a 21-year-old male (Patient 64) with a history of travel to Dubai. He landed in Bengaluru on March 22. Both have been isolated at designated hospitals in Dakshina Kannada. In Bengaluru, a 20-year-old male (Patient 57), with a history of travel to Colombo who arrived in India on March 15; a 25-year-old woman (Patient 58), with a history of travel to London who arrived on March 18; a 35-year-old woman (Patient 59) and another 33-year-old woman (Patient 61), who are contacts of Patient 25, a domestic help, tested positive for COVID-19.
All have been isolated at designated hospitals. Patient 60 is the 60-year-old resident of Sira taluk in Tumakuru district who had travelled to Delhi by train on March 13. He died on Friday in a Tumakuru hospital. Twentyfour high-risk primary contacts have been traced of which 13 are isolated in designated hospital. Eight tested negative and three are healthcare professionals who are house-quarantined. Patient 62 is a 22-year-old resident of Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district with a history of travel to Dubai while Patient 63 is an 18- year-old male resident of Davangere with a history of travel to Paris and arrived in India on March 18.
Though there have been three cases so far in Karnataka with no travel history to coronavirus- affected countries, the health department officials continue to claim that Stage 3 of the pandemic, which is community transmission, hasn’t yet started. Patient 52, a 35-year-old man from Mysuru, Patient 56 and Patient 60 had no travel history. Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department maintained, “There is no evidence of community transmission and we have been tracing the contacts. We will be taking help from the Delhi Government to track the contacts of Patient 60. We will come out with more details on the three cases soon.”
Further, he pointed out there have been cases of landlords asking doctors, nurses and medical staff to move out of their accommodation and added that strict action will be taken against them. Some private clinics have been closed as well though there is no order for them to be closed. According to the Indian Medical Association, all health services are essential services and need to remain open, he said.