Kalaburagi district has been put on high alert following the death of a 76-year-old man who was tested positive for COVID-19 .
Deputy Commissioner B. Sharat held a meeting of top officials from different departments late Thursday night and discussed precautionary measures to be taken to prevent the spread of the disease.
According to the information Mr. Sharat shared, 31 people who were in direct contact with the man and who were home-quarantined have now been shifted to a quarantine ward in State-run ESIC medical complex. They are considered as high-risk suspects and each one of them have been provided with one medical officer. Four medical professionals who had treated the patient before his death in a private hospital are also among the high-risk suspects.
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Fifteen more people who were also in contact with the dead man in one or the other way also quarantined in ESIC isolation ward.
Throat swab and blood samples of four high-risk suspects who developed some COVID-19 symptoms were collected and dispatched to National Institute of Virology in Bengaluru. The samples are expected to reach the lab by 2 pm today.
Ward 30 in Kalaburagi Municipal Corporation area, where the COVID-19 infected patient lived, has been declared as Containment Area for intense monitoring.
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As a precautionary measure, an indefinite holiday has been declared for all schools and colleges. Mr. Sharat, however, clarified that the examinations would continue as usual.
Soon after the midnight meeting with the officials, Mr. Sharat called on Sharanabasavappa Appa, the head of Sharana Basaveshwara Samstan, and appealed to him to cancel the Sharana Basaveshwara Jatra, an annual carnival, that was scheduled begin on Friday. The latter agreed to celebrate the Jatra only with family members and avoid mass gathering.
Since the message did not reach the people, thousands of people arrived to the event on Friday morning. The police and health department teams have been deployed to convince the people and send them back.
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Deputy Commissioner B. Sharat , along with Police Commissioner M.N. Nagaraj, Deputy Commissioner of Police D. Kishore Babu, Superintendent of Police Ida Martin Marbaniang, Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Panchayat D. Raja, Municipal Corporation Commissioner Rahul Pandve and other officers, addressed an emergency press conference to explain the precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the disease.
He said that measures were taken to close the shopping malls, cinema halls and other business establishments.
He appealed the people to postpone all the events which attract people such as Jatras. He also advised the people to hold unavailable events such as wedding in a simple manner with family members only.
He appealed to the people who have recently returned from abroad to get voluntarily screened.
