The Karnataka Health Department on Tuesday announced that all the 215 random samples tested from two containment zones in Bengaluru returned negative for COVID-19.
Officials also confirmed 11 new cases in the state, taking Karnataka’s tally to 523, with 20 deaths and 207 discharges.
Speaking to the media, Suresh Kumar, Minister for Education and in-charge of addressing the press for COVID-19, said 145 persons from Hogasandra ward and 70 people from Padarayanapura ward were tested. The individuals were randomly selected and were not primary contacts of COVID-19 patients or those who are already in quarantine.
“Fortunately, all of them have tested negative,” the minister said during the daily briefing.
Senior officials noted that no other random sample test has taken place in the city, though further details are awaited. Earlier reports had suggested that following the Union government’s directives, random pool testing would be carried out in districts with a low or zero number of cases.
Bengaluru has containment zones in 25 wards in the city, with two wards — Padarayanapura and Bapuji Nagar — being completely sealed.
Incidentally, the only new case from Bengaluru on Tuesday was a 48-year-old male resident of Padarayanapura. He is the 20th COVID-19 positive person from the ward, while Hongasandra had 24 positive cases as of Tuesday. No other ward in the city has more than three cases.
In other containment zones, a 100-metre buffer zone has been created as a containment area around houses of those who have contracted the infection. Suresh Kumar further said that a total of 120 such containment zones are in place in the entire state.
A total of 4,07,811 people are residing in 72,611 houses, which fall under these zones. About 5,931 offices and shops are also located within the same 120 containment zones, he said.
The minister also noted that 7,69,342 people housed in 3,63,9204 houses are living in buffer zones. There are a total of 65,385 offices and shops within these buffer zones.
While Bengaluru Urban has the highest number of cases with 131 positive cases, Mysuru is the second most affected district with 87. These two cities are followed by Belagavi and Kalaburagi, each of which has 52 and 44 cases respectively.
In terms of COVID-19 deaths, Kalaburagi and Bengaluru are worst affected with five casualties each. Other than these districts, no other part of the state has had more than two COVID-19 deaths.