With an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the city, as many as 50 ambulances have been pushed into service to shift patients to care centres or hospitals, and other vehicles to take swab samples to laboratories.
According to a release, six will be for Bengaluru Urban district, four for Bengaluru Rural district and the remaining for BBMP limits. Within BBMP limits, the eight zones will have 38 ambulances, and two additional ambulances will be at the disposal of the BBMP head office.
Apart from this, 17 vehicles to transport primary and secondary contacts have been arranged. There will be five separate vehicles to transport patients with Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). A mobile swab collection vehicle will also be pushed into service within three days. The BBMP has appointed eight epidemiologists on outsourced basis, who will be responsible for tracing primary and secondary contacts.
The release said that hearses have been organised to transport bodies of COVID-19 patients to the designated crematoria.
The BBMP war room report stated that there were as many as 458 active containment zones in the city, as on June 23. Of the active containment zones, 439 were areas, 46 apartments, 14 clusters, two slums and one hotel.
The report also stated that 16% of the positive cases had travel history (domestic/ international), 30% were primary or secondary contacts while 34% had ILI/SARI. Of the 80,022 tests conducted, 1.8% had tested positive.
