Karnataka reported its first COVID-19 relapse on Monday with a 50-year-old Tablighi Jamaat convention attendee testing positive days after being discharged.
The State health officials confirmed that P-298 from Kudachi, who had recovered and was discharged, has suffered a relapse. He has been re-admitted to a designated hospital in Belagavi.
The patient was initially admitted on April 15 and recovered, testing negative twice on April 30 and May 1. The tests were done at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Bengaluru, and the National Institute of Traditional Medicine (NITM), Belagavi.
Despite recovering, his treatment continued in the ICU for other comorbidities, especially cardiac issues. He was discharged on May 4 and quarantined at an institutional facility in Kudachi.
However, he developed symptoms again and was tested for COVID-19 again on May 5 at NITM, Belagavi. The result came back positive. He was re-admitted to a hospital, and on May 6 a second test was done at the Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences. Again, he tested positive.
New cases
Meanwhile, 14 new cases were reported on Monday, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases in Karnataka to 862. This includes 31 deaths, one non-COVID death, and 426 discharged persons.
Of the 14 new cases, three are from Davangere, two each from Bagalkot and Bidar, and one each from Kalaburagi, Haveri, Vijayapura, Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, Hassan, and Mandya. Monday’s case in Haveri is the third case in that district.
Except for four cases, the rest are either primary or secondary contacts of previous positive patients. A 20-year-old man from Banahatti in Bagalkot, who has a travel history to Ahmedabad, and a 26-year-old man from Haveri, who has a travel history to Mumbai and Bhatkal, tested positive.
That apart, a 30-year-old woman from Hassan and a 38-year-old man from Mandya, both of whom had a travel history to Mumbai, also tested positive. Both have been admitted to a designated hospital in Mandya.
A 55-year-old woman from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, who is a contact of P-796, a 60-year-old patient with Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) from Bengaluru, has now been infected.
Asserting that there was no need to panic and that the situation was under control in the State, Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, said that the number of recovered patients was higher than the number of active cases, which stood at 404 as on Monday. “We have been maintaining this trend for the last two weeks,” he said.