The Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Minister B Sriramulu on Tuesday revealed that health officials in the state intensified screening and safety measures after it was announced that a 24-year-old Hyderabad man who tested positive for COVID-2019 was in Bengaluru days before getting sick.
Speaking to reporters in the Vidhana Soudha after an emergency meeting convened in Bengaluru, Sriramulu said that the 24-year-old man works with a software company and that he worked for a day in Bengaluru on February 20 before travelling to Hyderabad by bus. Twenty-five people who came in contact with the patient have been quarantined in Bengaluru.
"We received information about this at 5 pm yesterday. We have collected a list of passengers with him on the flight from Dubai and in the bus to Hyderabad. We have collected around 50-60% of the contacts," said Sriramulu.
Health officials have begun contact tracing of those who may have come in touch with the man and are notifying them to stay at home under isolation for a period of 14 days.
"He started showing symptoms when he reached Hyderabad. The contacts are being informed about the situation. At the moment, we would not like to divulge the name of the person," Sriramulu added. 'Contact tracing' is monitoring of people In close contact with someone who is infected with a virus, in this case the COVID-2019.
It all started on Monday evening when officials from the union health ministry announced that 2 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in New Delhi and Telangana. It was later revealed that the man from Hyderabad who had contracted the virus had travelled from Bengaluru just days before.
Sriramulu said that 25 people from the contact list were screened and quarantined in their homes. This includes the colleagues of the techie. They will be shifted to a hospital if they begin to develop symptoms. They will be subjected to 14 days of incubation and 14 days of isolation. Most of the samples tested so far among the people who were in contact with the Hyderabad software engineer have come back negative, Sriramulu said.
He also revealed that the man did not show symptoms when he was screened at the airport in Bengaluru upon his arrival from Dubai. Over 40,000 passengers have been screened in Bengaluru ever since processes were put in place on January 20.
Sriramulu stated that separate wards will be set up in hospitals in all districts of Karnataka. Meanwhile, Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) issued a circular to clean surfaces on its buses including door handles and armrests using disinfectants.