A family of four, including the husband wife and their two daughters have tested positive for the coronavirus in Bengaluru.
The two daughters, aged 9 years and 7 years respectively, were confirmed positive for the virus SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19, by the Karnataka government on Wednesday.
Their father, a 39-year-old man returned from Amsterdam and landed at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport on March 18. He was placed under home quarantine and was tested positive on March 21, according to the Karnataka Health Department. His wife, a 30-year-old resident of the city was also tested positive on March 23.
This is not the first time that an entire family has tested positive for the virus in India. Earlier, two families in Kerala, who had returned from Telangana had tested positive. One included a Kerala couple and their three year old daughter, who had returned from Italy. The daughter recovered and was discharged from the Kalamassery Medical College.
In Sangli in Maharashtra, 9 members of a family tested positive, a few of them had visited Saudi Arabia.
As on Wednesday evening, 51 people have tested positive for the virus in Karnataka. Several relatives of people who were tested positive in Karnataka have also been infected. These include the wife and daughter of the Dell techie and the 65-year-old woman from Chikkaballapura, who had travelled with her 31-year-old son to Saudi Arabia.
On March 24, a 56-year-old woman, who had come into contact with the mother and son from Chikkaballapura tested positive for the coronavirus. She was a co-passenger in the train the duo took to reach Chikkaballapura. The Health Department also said that a 56-year-old woman from Bengaluru, who came into contact with patient number 13 -- a 25-year-old man who returned from a vacation in Spain, was also tested positive on March 24.
So far, 13,246 people have been placed under observation and 214 people have been lodged in isolation wards. The home quarantine enforcement squad in Bengaluru has detained seven other people, who have been sent to government-designated quarantine centres. So far, 10 persons have violated home quarantine and have landed in isolation centres including three people from Bengaluru on Tuesday.