Four more people tested positive for coronavirus in Mysuru district of Karnataka on Wednesday taking the tally of people affected by one pharmaceutical employee to 16.
So far, in Karnataka, this is the biggest known cluster of COVID-19 cases and the Mysuru district administration is yet to pinpoint the source of the infection. None of the patients have any foreign travel history or had any contact with any other patient.
Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Shankar told TNM that health authorities in the district are examining three different ways the virus could have infected the first case (patient 52), a 35-year-old man who works in the quality assurance section of Jubilant Life Sciences, a company based in Nanjangud in the district.
He tested positive on March 26 and since then, 16 people who came in contact with him have tested positive including his wife and colleagues. Patient 52 did not have any known foreign travel or contact history.
“We are cross checking if the information given by patient 52 about his movements is true. We are checking the visitor log of the pharmaceutical company for foreign nationals who had visited.We are also checking consignments the company had received from abroad,” Mysuru DC Abhiram G Shankar told TNM.
The samples of the consignments were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for testing, Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Department. Confirmed. The company had imported a gel from China, officiais stated.
Stringent lockdown measures were imposed in Nanjangud when the first set of cases were reported. All activity in the town has been suspended with only one entry and exit point open for the movement of essential goods and emergency services.
Around 1,400 employees of the pharmaceutical company are also currently quarantined in their homes.
A 3 km buffer zone has been created in Nanjangud town and Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers are going door-to-door to collect information about anyone reporting symptoms.
Health authorities are waiting for information from the National Institute of Virology in Pune about the parcels sent for testing. They are also searching for who they believe could be patient zero i.e a person with foreign travel history who infected patient 52.
A total of 110 cases of coronavirus were reported in Karnataka as of Wednesday night. Apart from the cluster in Mysuru, smaller clusters of cases were reported in Uttara Kannada and Chikkaballapura districts of the state.