Bengaluru has added a new containment zone to its list on Thursday, bringing the total number of containment zones in the city to 21.
Hongasandra ward in Bengaluru is being disinfected, and a containment zone has been set up 100 metres around the area where nine new cases have been reported.
A resident of Bommanahalli in Hongasandra ward tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday. Nine of his direct contacts have also contracted the virus from him, and have tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
Local TV channels reported that disinfectants are being sprayed throughout the area and barricades have also come up in the area, to prevent the movement of vehicles and people to and from the locality.
The first patient- patient number 419- worked at a scrap segregation unit. He is a migrant worker aged about 54 years. He had initially gone to a private clinic with breathing difficulties, and now all the doctors and nurses from the private clinic are under quarantine.
The first patient after being admitted to hospital was diagnosed with a Severe Acute Respiratory Infection, and has tested positive for coronavirus. As the Karnataka government is testing all the contacts and secondary contacts of positive cases reported in the state, regardless of symptoms, these new cases came to the fore.
Karnataka State Education Minister Suresh Kumar had said in a press conference on Thursday that upwards of 60 percent of cases reported in the state are asymptomatic. Thus, as a precaution, they are testing all the primary and secondary contacts of reported cases as soon as they are known.
The state’s testing capacities have increased, and Karnataka is now testing more than 2000 samples every day, across the state.