Karnataka on Saturday reported 12 new cases, the highest in a single day so far, taking the tally in the state to 76.
Late at night, the Mysuru district commissioner said five more people had tested positive in the district. But it was yet to be confirmed by the state health department.
Of the cases, 41 are from Bengaluru, eight from Chikkaballapur, while Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada districts have seven each.
Interestingly, the highest number of patients are those from Dubai or those who had transit travel via Dubai. Out of 76 cases, 17 cases (22%) have travel history to Dubai, the capital of Emirate of Dubai and the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, who is also in-charge of COVID-19 operations, said that Dubai has been a major concern as far as Karnataka COVID-19 patients are concerned. “Most of the positive cases have come through Dubai suggesting something amiss there,” he said.
Echoing the same, Dr Prakash Kumar, Joint Director, Communicable Diseases, Department of Health and Family Welfare, said, “The layover in Dubai is around six to seven hours. We are seeing Dubai to be the new epicentre of the virus as far as India is concerned.”
UAE was initially not on the list of countries from where passengers were screened. It was added much later when clusters of patients with travel history to Dubai began popping up all over the country.
Patient-19 has infected the maximum so far.
Out of the 12 cases that tested positive on Saturday, five are contacts of Patient 19. All of them are being treated at a Chikkaballapur hospital. Two of them are from Hindupur, Andhra Pradesh, and three are residents of Gauribidanur taluk in Chikkabalapur district.
P19, a 31-year-old man from Chikkaballapur, had travelled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and returned to India on March 14. Existing patient clusters suggest that P19 had infected the maximum number of people. Officials did not reveal how many people he originally travelled with to Mecca.
Amid the rise in cases, Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary (Health), maintained that the state had not reached stage 3. But he had no definitive answer as to how the Mysuru patient contracted the virus despite health officials he was in touch with not testing positive.
Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said around 1,000 primary contacts of all positive cases have been classified as high-risk and low-risk. The high-risk patients are in government hospitals while the low-risk ones in quarantine facilities.
Comments
just sentence him to death.. this kind of morons are evil for society. he was earning handsome salary of 40k+ riyals and braking against muslims/islam. if he work in india as engineer he wont get even10k indian rupees. whoever do this kind of hatred againt other religion whether muslim, hindu or christian he deserve death only.
Its every one's duty to respect the laws of the country where we live. Being expatriate in Saudi Arabia we should be more careful on the issue. You might be follower of enemies of islam in India, but you cannot do it in Saudi Arabia or Gulf countries. You mihgt have been brainwashed in india but anti national and anti muslim political parties, who are trying to make use of you to spread hate among different communities for their political benefit. At last you will be the one to suffer. No political for whom you are working will not come to support you and they will say you are not related to their party and there is no connection between you and the party. dont get fooled by these hate political parties. I am sorry for the fate of this unfortunate person and hope he will be freed at the earliest possible. This is good lesson for all hate mongers in Saudi Arabia. Dont bring your dirty politics to saudi arab ia. People from all religion are living peacefully here. They eat together and live together as one family.
Maron is arrested, let him learn his mistake for his hatrate,
indian political people make innocent people to reach and this is what the end result but the political people are living happly with all facility only ch**tya citizen of india is fooled all time.
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