Four more employees of a pharmaceutical company in Mysuru tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. This means that as many as ten employees of Jubilant, a pharmaceutical company which has a unit in Nanjangud in Mysuru, have now tested positive for COVID-19.
Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Shankar told TNM that health officials are yet to trace the source of the infection. However, Jawaid Akhtar, Principal Secretary (Health), told TNM that they were investigating if any of the packages received from China could have caused the infection. Since India had put stringent clauses on import from China, authorities are unclear if the company received any consignments recently and are investigating the same.
The first case in this cluster, that of a 35-year-old man, was reported on March 26. He had no relevant foreign travel or contact history, the Karnataka government had said. According to officials in the state health department, the man had come in contact with several healthcare professionals.
He worked in the quality assurance section of the company. On Sunday, five more employees of the same company tested positive for the virus including four residents of Chamundi Pura Extension, Ramaswamy Layout, Govind Raj Layout areas in Nanjangud Town. One other person from Yaraganahalli New Extension in Mysuru also tested positive.
The development has led to district authorities treating this as a cluster, and vehicles moving in and out of Nanjangud are being monitored closely. Nanjangud is known for the famous Srikanteshwara Temple. Around 1,000 employees of the pharmaceutical company are quarantined at home.
The movement of essential services are allowed as of now. So far, 88 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Karnataka including 12 people who have tested positive in Mysuru.
Apart from the cases in Mysuru, a 13-year-old boy from Tumakuru also tested positive for the virus on Monday. He is the son of the 65-year-old man who died after he had earlier tested positive for the virus.