Amongst the 33 cases reported in Bengaluru on Saturday, 11 cases have been linked to one patient – P2180, a 38-year-old woman with a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. This is also the highest single-day increase in the city.
The 38-year-old woman had tested positive for the novel coronavirus on the 25th of May. A resident of a slum in DG Halli, the woman lived with 10 family members who have been tested positive including a two-year-old baby, a five-year-old boy, and an eight-year-old boy. The slum was marked as a containment zone and had restricted activities in the zone. Despite that 11 people were tested positive on Saturday raising the fears of the officials. The officials said that they are expecting more cases in the cluster as the contacts are still under tracing.
Previously, Bengaluru reported cases of people who had come from other states or countries but from Saturday, more cases have emerged who were either primary or secondary contacts of a COVID-19 positive patient. Tracing of contacts is bound to have inaccuracy, as the city is back to being populated after much of the restrictions, were relaxed. This has lead to serious fears of the city having community Transmission.
The rise in the number of containment zones
On 22nd May, the city had 20 containment zones which have now reached 26 as the cases have surged in the past two days. The BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar acknowledged that the major challenge that lies ahead is to trace the contacts as soon as possible and place them in quarantine. He also said that the city will definitely see a spike in the number of cases from June 1st as the movement of people increases due to the relaxations offered by the government.
The rise in containment zones also increases the biomedical hazardous waste and the need to dispose of it safely. Although the pollution control board and the BBMP have assured to have made necessary arrangements to dispose of the waste, the workers will need to deal with hazardous waste like masks and gloves coming from the residences. This waste gets mixed up with the normal waste and the segregation becomes tedious and unsafe.
Here is the list of containment zones:
- Hongasandra (W-189)
- Mangammanapalya (W-190)
- Begur (W-192)
- Puttenhalli (W-187)
- Bommanahalli (W-175)
- HSR Layout (W-174)
- Hoodi (W-54)
- Hagadur (W-84
- Varthur (W-149)
- Ramamurthy Nagar (W-26)
- Marathalli (W-86)
- Kadugodi (W-83)
- Nagavara (W-23)
- HBR Layout (W-24)
- Shivajinagar (W-92)
- Vammarpet (W-115)
- SK Garden (W-61)
- Agaram (W-114)
- BTM Layout (W-176)
- Lakkasandra (W-146)
- Siddapura (W-144)
- Hosahalli (W-124)
- Malleshwaram (W-45)
- Padaranayapura (W-135)
- Jagajeevanram Nagar (W-136)
- Marappana Palya (W-44)
- Agrahara Dasarahalli (W-105)
- Thanisandra (W-06)
- Herohalli (W-72)
- Jnanabharathinagar (W-129)
- Chokkasandra (W-39)
Source: Livemint
