Minister for Medical Education K. Sudhakar on Tuesday said Karnataka’s rate of COVID-19 testing was one of the highest in the country and one out of 63 persons subjected to the tests was testing positive to the contagion in the State.
He told reporters here that the relatively higher testing rate and the percentage of persons testing positive indicated that there was no community transmission of COVID-19. Karnataka had fast-tracked the tests and adequate number of tests was being carried out. Thanks to the strict containment strategies, the spread had been minimal. More tests are on the cards since the rapid testing kits were being procured.
If one person was testing positive out of 63 in Karnataka, one out of 48 persons and one among 11 persons were testing positive in Haryana and Maharashtra respectively.
To questions on the possibilities of recovered patients getting infection for the second time, the Minister said there had been some reports of relapse of COVID-19 cases in China. Some patients had contracted the virus two months after the first infection.
“However, the virulence of the virus will be less when compared to the first-time infection since the body would have produced antibodies and the patients will have the strength to combat the infection. There is no need to panic since relapse cases had been found to be very few.”
Mysuru cases
On the cases in Mysuru, a COVID-19 hotspot, Mr. Sudhakar said 84 positive cases had been reported so far with 60 active cases, including two being treated in the ICU. A total of 24 patients had been discharged.
As many cases were linked to Jubilant Generics Limited, Nanjangud, 242 primary contacts and 2,011 secondary contacts of the employees were in quarantine. So far, 1,400 out of 1,562 linked to the company had been tested and a few other tests were pending. Once they are done, the final tally on the number of infected linked to the company would be available.
The Minister said 55-60 per cent COVID-19 cases in the State are linked to Tablighi Jamaat and the Nanjangud company. The cases in Belagavi, Vijayapura, Ballari and Chikkaballapura are linked to those who attended the Nizamuddin event.
Assurance to health worker
Mr. Sudhakar and Minister in-charge of Mysuru district S.T. Somashekar met ASHA worker Sumayya Firdose, who was allegedly threatened by some miscreants when she insisted on them wearing masks in view of the pandemic. They met the health worker at Aleem Nagar and commended her resolve to do her duty. She was told the administration was with her.
Mr. Sudhakar condemned the incident which came close on the heels of violence in Padarayanapura in Bengaluru and said the health worker’s advice was in view of public health safety. Such acts will come to a stop as the State government has proposed to issue an ordinance, modelled on similar move in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, to curb attacks on health workers and police in Karnataka, he said.
“I have asked the Commissioner of Police to lodge an FIR with regard to the Mysuru incident,” Mr. Somashekar added.
