Seven new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Karnataka on Sunday, out of which five people had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting in Delhi.
The seven patients include a couple from Bengaluru, aged 68 and 62. They had returned from Dubai on March 22 and have now been quarantined at a private hospital. The report also states that these two, identified as patient 145 and 146, are asymptomatic.
Meanwhile, four cases have been reported in Belagavi and all four had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting between March 13 and 18. They returned to Belagavi on March 20. The four cases include a 36-year-old woman, a 40-year-old man, a 67-year-old woman, and a 41-year-old woman. All four patients have been isolated at the district hospital in Belagavi, the bulletin said.
The seventh patient is a 41-year old-man from Ballari district who had also attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting and returned on March 20. The man is asymptomatic and has been quarantined in Ballari.
Till date, there have been 4 reported deaths in Karnataka due to coronavirus. Additionally, there have been 12 people who recovered from coronavirus. The rest of the cases are being treated in various hospitals and establishments.
The release from the Karnataka Health Department also said that the state government was working to keep the number of cases on the state low, and also developing a fresh protocol, in the event that there would be a larger outbreak of coronavirus in the state. This meeting was held by the Karnataka Health Commissioner Pankaj Pandey, along with the Karnataka Secretary to Government (Expenditure), Dr PC Jaffer. This meeting came even as there is the absence of substantial guidance from the Centre in the handling of the coronavirus crisis.
“The government is planning to enlist volunteers to support facility functions in the event of a large number of cases, and develop training modules to enable them to carry out these functions. The protocols also make provisions for tying up with community management teams to handle follow-ups,” Health Commissioner Pankaj Pandey said in the bulletin.