Over the past 10 days, 10 wards have reported most cases
While the positivity rate in Bengaluru has seen a significant drop, a handful of wards where the maximum number of cases are reported every day continue to remain on the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s radar. Data from the civic body’s War Room bulletin published on June 29 shows that over the past 10 days, 10 wards, seven of which are in Mahadevapura zone alone, have reported the most cases in Bengaluru. These include Bellandur, Horamavu, Ramamurthynagar, Hagadooru, Varthur, Hoodi, and Kadugodi wards.
To keep a check on this, the civic body has set in place a micro-plan at the ward level and for the first time introduced perimeter testing where households around the affected residence will be tested.
BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta explained that the ward-level micro-plan includes regular home visits, micro-containment zones, and increased monitoring of those under home isolation.
“While the perimeter has not really been fixed, health officials have been instructed to test residents of at least houses on either side of the house where a case has been reported, three opposite and three behind,”said D. Randeep, BBMP’s Special Commissioner (Health).
Earlier, the civic body was only focusing on testing primary and secondary contacts of those who had tested positive for COVID-19. Now, because of high transmissibility of the Delta variant that is deemed to be the reason for the second wave, the BBMP is taking up perimeter testing.
Each zone has been assigned two epidemiologists who study the trends of cases reported. They have been instructed to properly monitor any small increase in cases. The civic body has also instructed marshals to take up rigorous monitoring of COVID-19- appropriate behaviour, particularly in these wards, said Mr. Randeep. “All active cases are closely monitored for any containment zone breach. Stringent containment measures, which in some cases also includes barricading, has been taken up,” he added.
He attributed the higher number of cases in these wards to a number of reasons, ranging from increased testing to a higher percentage of floating population such as construction workers and students who may have all returned from other States. When asked about more cases being reported in wards in Mahadevapura zone, Mr. Randeep, who is also the zonal commissioner, said that compared to other zones, the size of wards in this zone was bigger. “Though the number of cases is high, the cases are dispersed and there are no clusters,” he said.
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