The residents of Mudigere taluk on Saturday heaved a sigh of relief after a medical officer (P-1295) was discharged from the COVID-19 care centre after he tested negative in multiple tests conducted to confirm the infection. With this, 1,446 people who were quarantined were also released.
The doctor, working at the government primary health centre at Nandipura in Mudigere taluk, tested positive on May 19. He had no history of travelling outside the district since March. After he was found infected, the district administration declared the area around his residence in Mudigere a containment zone and quarantined 485 primary contacts and 961 secondary contacts of the doctor.
Deputy Commissioner Bagadi Gautam on Saturday told reporters that the sample collected from the doctor was sent to National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bengaluru and tested positive. Later, swab samples were collected from 28 of his primary contacts, and none of them tested positive. “We treated this as doubtful and again tested his sample on May 20, when it came back negative. Again, after 24 hours, another sample was collected and tested, which also turned out to be negative. In order to confirm it, we sent samples to laboratories in Shivamogga and Chikkamagaluru. Both times it came back negative,” he said.
The district administration reported this development to the higher authorities in the State government. Two samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology, where the laboratory test results came back negative. “As a result, the government has declared the first result wrong,” the DC said.
The residents of the locality, which had been declared a containment zone, were in a festive mood with the doctor’s discharge. All those who were quarantined were sent home in buses.
