Contact tracing teams reactivated

Containment zones up from 110 on Jan. 1 to 221 on Jan. 6

A containment zone on Infantry Road on Wednesday.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to reactivate quarantine watch and contact tracing teams. These teams were deactivated last year, after the cases started to decline.

As a direct consequence of the increase in number of cases, the number of containment zones has also increased. In just six days, the number of containment zones has increased from 110 on January 1 to 182 on January 5.

According to the daily BBMP's COVID-19 War Room reports, there were 221 containment zones on Thursday.

BBMP Chief Health Officer Balasundar told The Hindu that over 100 containment zones were reported from apartments. The civic body's health officials coordinated with the residents’ associations in these apartments, apart from intimating the local police about the cases and persons under home isolation/ quarantine.

“That apart, with the spike in cases, the Home Guards have been roped in for quarantine watch. These teams will check on those under quarantine, apart from coordinating with the residents’ associations,” he said.

Similarly, contact tracing teams have also been reactivated. Teachers and personnel from other departments who were earlier deployed for contact tracing are being roped in again, Dr. Balasundar said.

The BBMP has also posted KAS officers to monitor activities pertaining to COVID-19 management in each of the 27 Assembly constituencies. Eight KAS officials have also been posted to monitor the zonal COVID-119 War Rooms.

The War Room reports show that the most number of containment zones are in Mahadevapura and Bommanahalli zones. Explaining reasons for more positive cases being reported from these two zones, the CHO said that Mahadevapura, being the IT hub, sees a lot of employees who have undertaken domestic and international travel. “We have seen that many cases are reported among citizens residing in wards coming under Mahadevapura zone (Bellandur, Doddanekkundi etc.) and Bommanahalli zone (HSR Layout). However, in other wards where there are more cases being reported, such as Mangammanapalya, near Electronics City, the source of infection is being traced to a fruit market that sees a lot of merchants/ traders coming from other States,” he said.