While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Tuesday declared 32 wards under six zones as COVID-19 hotspots where it has intensified primary and secondary contact tracing, there are no plans for now to seal them. BBMP Commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar urged citizens not to panic.

Any ward with at least one COVID-19 positive case reported in the past 28 days and any ward that has at least 50 primary contacts, of those tested positive, under active quarantine of 28 days, is defined as a hotspot by a circular issued by the Department of Health and Family Welfare.

Significantly, the number of hotspot wards were 38 as on Tuesday and dropped to 32 by Wednesday evening. Ten wards that were declared hotspots on Tuesday dropped from the list on Wednesday - Ganga Nagar, Ramamurthy Nagar, Begur, Girinagar, Adugodi, Madiwala, Suddagunte Palya, Aramane Nagar, Nagarabhavi and Jagjivanram Nagar - which means no new COVID-19 positive cases have been reported from these wards in the last 28 days. Meanwhile, Ejipura, Domlur, K.R. Market and R.R. Nagar were declared hotspot wards on Wednesday.

Most of these 32 wards are concentrated in a belt along the North-East and South-East alignment of Outer Ring Road between Ballari Road and Hosur Road. Another cluster is at the intersection of Mysuru Road and West of Chord Road. South and East zones had the highest number of hotspots at nine wards each. West and Mahadevpura zones have five wards each while Yelahanka zone has two. Bommanahalli and R.R. Nagar zones have one each. “The two wards that have been sealed, Padarayanapura and Bapuji Nagar, saw a sudden spike of cases in clusters, unlike in other wards where the positive cases are not related to one another,” said BBMP Commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar. He said population density was also a factor in determining whether maintaining social distancing and isolation was possible to decide which areas should be sealed.