Contrary to the perception that individuals with travel history spread the virus most in Bengaluru, officials from concerned authorities have revealed that it has been the primary contacts who have spread the virus most in the city. The officials also gave out a few stats to back their statement.
Transmission from people with travel history was high a month ago
A BBMP official said that transmission from people with travel history was high around a month ago. However, since April 17th, all the cases reported transmission from primary contacts. The official added that the number of cases are going high due to this.
As on Saturday, Bengaluru had a total of 221 cases. Of this, 141 were from primary contacts, 35 from people with travel history and the remaining 19 belonged to the Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) category.
Reason for the trend
The officials also revealed the reasons that could be behind this worrying trend. Failure to follow social distancing norms, poor socio-economic background and living conditions, individuals with existing complications, asymptomatic patients spending more time with healthy individuals, and flaws in the surveillance methods have been cited as the reasons.
While social distancing norms is something that can only be achieved by the authorities to a level, the officials opined that people must behave more responsibly. Pointing that a few clusters originated in areas such as Hongasandra and Padarayanapura, the stakeholders reasoned out that it was mainly because of the poor living conditions in these areas. They stay very close to each other which easily becomes a recipe for faster transmission of the virus.
Doctors from the civic agency revealed that if a person spends time with an infection for even under 15 minutes, the virus can transmit. Hence, it becomes important that all norms and regulations are followed duly by the citizens.
Source: Times of India
