On Tuesday, 144 residents of Abanalli village in Karnataka’s Belagavi district tested positive for coronavirus, which is nearly half of the population there. The Abanalli village in Belagavi’s Khanapur taluk has around 300 residents. According to officials, many residents of the village work in Maharashtra and during the period between Holi and Gudi Padwa in early April, a lot of people travelled back and forth to celebrate these festivals.
On April 10, several residents of the village had developed cough, cold and fever, following which the health officials sent testing teams to perform the COVID-19 test in the village. “Initially, on April 10, nearly 30 residents exhibited some symptoms. The testing teams, who had visited the village, performed a few Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT), which turned positive. On learning that several people had come from Maharashtra, the team collected swabs for RT-PCR test from all villagers on April 10 and 11,” Dr Sanjeeva Nadra, who is the Khanapur taluk health officer, told TNM. The results came in 10 days later.
According to the officials, the tests came out positive for the COVID-19 virus on April 20, Tuesday, after which the village turned into a containment zone. The official clarified that the patients were mostly asymptomatic. Dr Sanjeeva also said that all patients are fine and have no serious symptoms.
Dr Sanjeeva also said that no other case like this has been seen in nearby regions, except this village. Currently, all travel to and from Maharashtra have been completely banned to prevent any more spread. Maharashtra has the highest active COVID-19 cases in the country.
On Wednesday, the Belagavi district recorded a total of 301 COVID-19 cases, while it was 186 cases on Tuesday. With the latest cases, 1,384 patients are currently under treatment for COVID-19 in the district.
Meanwhile, Karnataka reported its highest single-day rise of new COVID-19, with 23,558 persons testing positive for coronavirus on Wednesday. Of this, over 15,000 cases were reported in Bengaluru. On Tuesday 21,794 cases were reported in the state. As of Wednesday, the total number of active cases stands at 1,76,188. Also, a total of 116 deaths were recorded in the state.