Relief from the high peaks of the vicious second wave has been brief as Bengaluru is witnessing a slow increase in new COVID-19 cases again.
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Special Commissioner (Health) D. Randeep told reporters on Friday that there has been a slow rise in infections. From around 300-odd a fortnight ago, the number of daily COVID-19 cases being reported in recent days has been well above 400. With the marginal increase in cases, the positivity rate has also seen an increase, he said.
As on Thursday, there were 155 clusters, including 78 apartments and 70 individual homes. According to the BBMP COVID-19 war room report on Friday, the number of micro containment zones, also known as clusters, is 162.
Of these, the highest number is in Mahadevapura (42), followed by East zone (38), Bommanahalli (28), South zone (19), Yelahanka (17), Rajarajeshwarinagar (10), West zone (5), and Dasarahalli (3). Eight wards in the city have been reporting 50 to 100 cases every day, including Horamavu, K.R. Puram, Basavanapura, Kadugodi, Hagaduru, Bellandur, Rajarajesh- warinagar, and Begur.
Mr. Randeep also said that with Karnataka being among the eight States in the country with high COVID-19 reproductive rate, efforts were being made to check the spread. The sero survey has already been taken up and the results are expected in a week’s time.
Better infrastructure
Meanwhile, the BBMP is stepping up the health infrastructure, from COVID Care Centres (CCCs) exclusively for children to physical triage centres (PTCs).
The civic body has decided to increase the number of PTCs from 16 to 27 — i.e. at least one centre per Assembly constituency. If required, given the expanse of some constituencies, more than one centre could be opened. This apart, CCCs exclusively for children will be established in each of the eight zones. This decision has been taken considering experts have predicted that children will be most affected by the third wave. Mr. Randeep said that an exclusive CCC for children with 30-bed capacity has been established in Padmanabhanagar constituency. These CCCs will have the facility to put up the parents of children who test positive for COVID-19. Special wards for children are also being set up in many government and private healthcare facilities across the city.
The BBMP is also seriously testing travellers from the neighbouring States of Maharashtra and Kerala. Both States have reported an increase in COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks. The BBMP is testing all those who do not possess a negative RT-PCR report and quarantining them in hotels until they test negative. The Special Commissioner said that just around 2% of the travellers were testing positive. On Thursday, around 25 persons were quarantined in hotels near railway and bus stations.
Mr. Randeep said the civic body had already tied up with hotels to earmark facilities for the purpose of quarantine. The BBMP will be paying ₹750 per person per day to hotels that have these quarantine facilities. “Travellers can also book rooms privately. We have asked the zones to fix the rates after coordinating with the hotels,” he said, added that the BBMP was working with the hotels’ association to have more quarantine facilities, at least in the vicinity of railway and bus stations.
With regard to the Delta case detected in Bommanahalli, Mr. Randeep said the civic body had once again collected samples from the primary and secondary contacts. The samples have been sent for genome sequencing.
