A day after a Hyderabad-native working in Bengaluru tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), the District Surveillance Unit of the Health Department has issued a notice to an apartment complex located on Sarjapur Road.
In a letter addressed to the president of the Apartment Association, the District Surveillance Officer, Bengaluru Urban, has said, “The District surveillance Unit Bangalore Urban has received information regarding Positive COVID 19 case resided in your apartment at Flat no-X. So we are required to conduct Surveillance activities in your apartment for which your co-operation is required.”
Residents living in the vicinity of the apartment confirmed that Health Department officials visited the complex on Tuesday morning and all residents have been asked to visit the public health centre in case of the slightest symptom.
This apartment complex on Sarjapur Road in the eastern periphery of the city is where the professional from Hyderabad had stayed for a day or two before travelling to his hometown.
The person from Hyderabad who tested positive had just returned from Dubai and had rejoined work at his Bengaluru office on February 20. He is suspected to have contracted the infection in Dubai while working with colleagues who were from Hong Kong. He had left for Hyderabad on February 22.
Dr Prakash, District Health Officer, Bangalore Urban, told TNM, “We are carrying out surveillance activities in the area. We have identified 90 houses in the vicinity and have already visited 40 households. In each house, we are checking for symptoms like sneezing, sore throat or body ache and others. If they exhibit any of these, then we have to refer them to the hospital. If they have any symptoms, they have been advised to stay in home quarantine for the next 28 days.”
In a press conference addressed by Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu earlier on Tuesday, it was revealed that 25 people have been kept under home quarantine including the Hyderabad man’s colleagues.
The two institutes that are equipped to test for the disease in Bengaluru are Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases and Bangalore Medical College.
An email purportedly written by his flatmate was also doing the rounds on Tuesday morning, which said that he has decided to work from home as advised. Meanwhile, Rajiv Gandhi Institute told TNM that the flatmate was asymptomatic and was not admitted, though many viral forwards had claimed so.
According to the Karnataka Additional Chief Secretary Health Jawaid Akhtar, all persons who had got in touch with the Hyderabad-native in recent days have been told to remain in isolation for the next 14 days. They have been asked to be tested if they exhibit any symptoms such as fever, cough, cold. Similarly, in Telangana, Health Minister Etela Rajender on Monday said all the co-passengers in the bus through which the infected person travelled to Hyderabad will be traced and kept in quarantine.