Karnataka's Covid-19 count at 83

BENGALURU: The Karnataka government on Sunday confirmed that five employees of a pharmaceutical company in Nanjangud near Mysuru who had come in contact with a Covid-19 patient have tested positive. They are colleagues of the 35-year-old man who worked at the quality assurance division of the pharmaceutical firm and tested positive for the virus on Friday. With it, the total number of positive cases in the state is 83.

The district administration has declared it as a “cluster case,” the first such to be reported in Karnataka. Vehicular movement from and to the temple town has been prohibited. Mysuru deputy commissioner Abhiram G Shankar has said that containment measures will be initiated in the town as per the procedure. The administration has put over 900 employees of the company under home isolation. Earlier they were all tested for symptoms and 53 of them are under close observation.

The case of the pharmaceutical employee who was tested on Friday has become a cause for concern as he has no travel history or known contact history. The government is yet to establish how the outbreak happened in the town.

STRICT QUARANTINE
With about 25% of the total Covid-19 positive cases in Karnataka being primary contacts of the affected persons, and home quarantining of primary contacts becoming a challenge, the state government has decided to shift all primary contacts from their homes to government-run facilities for strict monitoring.

The department of health and family welfare has issued an order making it mandatory for primary contacts of positive patients to move to designated quarantine facilities. “...The selfdiscipline of the home quarantined person is very crucial,” health commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said.