Covid-19: Slum area in Bengaluru sealed after 10 people test positive
A 54-year-old migrant labourer who lives in Bommanahalli area of the Hongasandra ward was the first patient to test positive on Wednesday.
A municipal ward in Bengaluru was partially sealed after 10 people in the area tested positive for the coronavirus over the last two days, NDTV reported on Friday.
The Hongasandra ward is located in the southeastern part of the city and is home to over 1,000 people who live in slums and squalid shanties. Many among them are labourers who work in the city’s metro rail project.
“It has been decided to conduct tests on everyone living in the area and 184 people have been quarantined at designated places,” Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar told NDTV.
A 54-year-old migrant labourer who lives in Bommanahalli area of the Hongasandra ward was the first patient to test positive on Wednesday. Nine of his direct contacts contracted the virus from him, and tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, according to The News Minute.
The area is being disinfected, and a containment zone has been set up 100 metres around the area where the nine new cases have been reported.
Meanwhile, unidentified health officials told NDTV that the man had been ill for a week before he was admitted to hospital on Tuesday. He was diagnosed with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection, but later tested positive for Covid-19.
It was not immediately clear how the man contracted the infection. However, media reports said he had been started his own food delivery service before the countrywide lockdown to contain the outbreak was imposed, and his likely to have come in contact with a large number of people.
The man’s wife and son, who helped him deliver food in the city in an auto-rickshaw, have also been quarantined.
On Wednesday, a hospital in Hongasandra was sealed off after a woman admitted there tested positive for the coronavirus.
Karnataka has reported 445 coronavirus cases as of Friday, with 17 deaths. The number of coronavirus cases in India jumped to 23,077 on Friday morning, but the Indian Council of Medical Research said at least 23,502 people have tested positive so far. The toll rose to 718, while the number of patients who have recovered stood at 4,748.
