Fourteen more coronavirus cases in Bengaluru's Shivaji Nagar

Coronavirus clusters account for over half of all COVID-19 cases in the city. The three main clusters, Shivajinagar, Hongansanda and Padarayanapura account for 54.62% (or 118 cases) of all 216 COVID cases reported to date in the city so far.

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Among these are fourteen new cases that were reported from Shivajinagar on Saturday. This takes the total number of cases in the beleaguered ward to 30.

Saturday’s cases resembled previous cases at Shivajinagar: all men, ranging from the age of 20 to 50.

Dr Sidappaji, BBMP Health Officer, East Zone specified that all the individuals were primarily migrants from other parts of the country such as Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and were employed in various professions such as security guards, hotel and restaurant workers.

“In this medium-sized building, 73 people were living, with as many as seven people to a single room,” he said, speculating that the building was likely densely populated because of low rent.

The building has now been closed. BBMP Commissioner B H Anil Kumar clarified that a total of 14 primary contacts and 91 secondary contacts have been sent into institutional quarantine.

At least 13 primary contacts have tested negative. Swabs from another 21 people in the group will be sent out tomorrow, with 18 being sent out the day after, a health official said, adding that he expected many of these to turn positive.

All of the infected men are asymptomatic and appear to be in perfect health, the official added.

First Case

The first case in the cluster was discovered on 5 May, when Patient 653, a 34-year-old housekeeper at a quarantine hotel on Chandini Chowk Road tested positive for the disease.

“This individual was infected after coming into contact with a 28-year-old nurse from Shifa Hospital who was being quarantined at the hotel where he worked,” explained the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, Suresh Kumar.

Shifa was closed on April 12, when a doctor became infected after examining a 42-year-old outpatient with symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). On April 22, the nurse (subsequently known as Patient 420) was also identified as covid positive.

Patient 653 was only identified as positive 13 days later. In the intervening period, he is said to have inadvertently infected dozens of people through the use of a common bathroom in his small four-story residential building, just up the road from the hotel on Chandini Chowk.