A woman aged 47 was found positive for COVID-19 in Dakshina Kannada on Sunday and the condition of a 67-year-old woman who is positive and undergoing treatment at the Government Wenlock Hospital is “serious”.
The woman who was found positive on Sunday is from Narikombu village in Bantwal taluk. She was a contact of a COVID-19 deceased woman.
According to Minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada Kota Srinivasa Poojary, the 47-year-old woman (patient number 501) worked at First Neuro Hospital in Mangaluru where the second COVID-19 victim in Dakshina Kannada, a 75-year-old woman, had been admitted earlier for stroke, hypertension and pneumonia.
The statement said that patient number 501 was among 198 persons, including employees and others in the private hospital, whose throat and nasal swabs had been collected for tests. Of them, reports of 49 persons had been received till Sunday. The reports of the other 48 persons except that of the 47-year-old woman tested negative. Patient number 501 is now undergoing treatment at the Government Wenlock Hospital.
A health bulletin from the State government said that the 67-year-old active patient, also from Bantwal, is in ICU at the COVID-19 hospital and continues to be on ventilator support. “Her condition is serious,” the bulletin said.
Mr. Poojary held a meeting in Bantwal on Sunday in the wake of increasing positive cases being reported from Bantwal area.
He said that Bantwal and Narikombu villages have been sealed down and a control room has been set up to help people in these areas round the clock. The Minister said that 11 officials have been posted in the two areas to provide banking services and ensure supplies of groceries, vegetables and milk at people’s doorsteps.
Accredited Social Health Activists and other staff from the Health Department have been asked to visit 92 houses in Kasba Hobli in Bantwal and 213 houses in Narikombu village daily to assess the health status of people. There will be no relaxation in the two areas from lockdown till May 3.
The Minister also directed Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B. Rupesh to take other stern measures required to deal with the situation in the two areas.
The district has five active patients [till Sunday]. Earlier two died and 12 persons have been discharged, he said.