Dakshina Kannada, Udupi register 20 Covid-19 cases in 24 hours

MANGALURU/UDUPI: Blips on Covid-19 graph of coastal district re-emerged on Wednesday after a day of relative lull with Dakshina Kannada and Udupi recording 20 positive cases in the 24 hours up to 5pm on May 27 with DK alone accounting for 11 of them. Not strangely though, all 20 cases are ‘imported’ with 19 out of them having come to the two districts from Maharashtra and lone case (P-2328) in DK is from Gujarat.
Incidentally, this was also the trend across Karnataka with 118 out of 135 fresh positive cases that Karnataka reported up to 5pm on Wednesday were those with history of inter-state travel and the 118 included two had come from abroad. With swab test reports on good number of samples of those who have entered the two coastal districts – presently in institutional/home quarantine – yet to be received – this number is expected to rise further.
Sindhu B Rupesh, deputy commissioner, DK district said 7 of the 11 people tested positive in the district are members of two families. While P-2287 to 2290 who had arrived from Mumbai on May 15 were in quarantine centre in Ullal, P-2326, 2329 and 2330 are also members of the same family who had arrived on May 16. Arrangements have been made to shift these seven and other four individuals to the designated Covid-19 hospital of the district, she said.
G Jagadeesha, Sindhu’s counterpart in Udupi said all 9 cases are people who had come to the district from Maharashtra. Since they were in quarantine, they have been shifted to TMA Pai Hospital, designated Covid-19 Hospital and their treatment has commenced. Udupi at present has 116 active cases out of 120 positive cases with three discharges and one death, while DK has 45 active cases with 21 discharges and seven deaths including one for non-Covid reason.
In a related development, Udupi district administration after a medical technicality in admitting a positive patient, shifted him to TMA Pai Hospital. The person was a staff from Udupi zilla panchayat who reported positive on May 24. As per the new guidelines issued on 26 May, district administration and health department did not admit him to Covid hospital, as he had no travel history or epidemiological link. However, as the public identified him as an infected person, DC asked to shift him to the isolation ward.
Udupi SP N Vishnuvardhan told TOI that all three-police stations that were temporarily closed after staff there tested positive have been reopened after sanitizing them. The stations closed were Karkala Rural/Ajekaru in Karkala sub-division and Brahmawar in Udupi sub-division. As directed by IGP (Western Range), steps have been taken to sanitize all police stations in the district in a phased manner and process has been completed in Hebri, SP added.