Two more COVID-19 deaths were reported in the State for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, taking the toll to 12. Wednesday also saw 19 new cases, the highest so far on a single day, taking the total number of cases in the State to 279.
These include 12 deaths and 80 people discharged. While three are in the ICU, the condition of others, including a pregnant woman, is stable.
While a 65-year-old male patient, a resident of Chickballapur who was referred from a private hospital in Bengaluru to the Emergency and Trauma Care Centre in Victoria Hospital, died early on Wednesday, an 80-year-old female patient, a resident of Hirebagewadi in Belagavi, died in a designated hospital there. The former had tested positive for H1N1 and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obstructive sleep apnea apart from other comorbidities.
Of the 19 new cases, 10 are from Mysuru, including nine Nanjangud pharma company workers. Of the remaining cases, three are from Vijayapura, two each from Bengaluru Urban and Bagalkot, and one case each from Belagavi and Kalaburagi, where a one-year-old child has been infected. One of the Bagalkot patients is a policeman.
Nanjangud source
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar told presspersons on Wednesday that the Health and Family Welfare Department had now learnt that several visitors from the U.S., Germany, China, and Japan had come to the pharma company in Nanjangud between February 4 and 18 and could have possibly spread the infection. “The first patient from the company developed symptoms on March 13 and he tested positive on March 24. The company owner is not available for tests as he is in Delhi. We are trying to trace him there. As many as 780 samples of the pharma company have been tested and 46 have tested positive,” he said.
Raw material samples test negative
Meanwhile, samples drawn from the raw material imported by the company have been tested negative for novel coronavirus.
Additional Director-General of Police Parashiva Murthy told reporters in Mysuru on Wednesday that the National Institute of Virology, Pune, which tested the samples, had issued a report in this regard.
As many people working in the company had tested positive for COVID-19, the Mysuru district police, which is investigating the source of the infection, had decided to test the raw material the firm had imported from China.
Mr. Suresh Kumar said all primary and secondary contacts of the infected persons and those with influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory illness in the State will be tested from now on.
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