Spike in SARI, ILI patients testing positive for Covid-19 in North Karnataka has authorities worried

Belagavi: In the wake of four elderly people dying of Covid-19 in Bidar and Kalaburagi on Saturday, the authorities in the two North Karnataka districts are struggling to trace their contacts. Notwithstanding the state government’s assertion that there the pandemic has not reached community transmission yet, the rise in the number of patients with influenza like illnesses (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) in Belagavi, Gadag, Dharwad, Bidar and Kalaburagi districts in the past week has made the authorities an anxious lot.
Consequently, the authorities are struggling to contain the transmission of the virus in their respective districts.
Kalaburagi deputy commissioner Sharath B said that most of the residents who had returned from Maharashtra had gone to their hamlets or tandas. “It is possible that there were asymptomatic Covid-19 patients among them. Although a large number of asymptomatic patients were not tested, it does not mean that they were not positive for the novel coronavirus. We have decided to declare entire hamlets where positive cases have been reported as containment zones. We have also intensified testing in villages, which are home to those who have returned from the neighbouring state,” Sharath told TOI.
Officials in Raichur and Gadag said that the spike in the number of people with SARI and ILI testing positive for the novel coronavirus despite having had no contact with previously infected patients hints at the infection having reached the stage of community transmission.
Dr Maqsood Chanda, one of the doctors advising the district administration in Bidar, said that the death of the three elderly people in the district and indications of their not having had contact with previously infected patients compelled one to acknowledge the reality of community transmission. “Virulence of the virus is notably higher among those who have returned from Hyderabad and they are likely to transmit the novel coronavirus to more people compared to those who are asymptomatic. Increase in the movement of those who have come from Hyderabad is likely to worsen the situation,” said Dr Chanda.
Director of National Institute of Traditional Medicine-Indian Council of Medical Research Debprasad Chattopadhyay said that the exponential spike in the number of infections offered irrefutable evidence of the virus being prevalent in the community. He said that the movement of asymptomatic patients, who constituted a bulk of the cases, was among the reasons for the spike, albeit by a small percentage.
On the other hand, Dr BV Srinivas Kakkilaya said that institutional quarantine centres in North Karnataka had turned into clusters for transmission of the virus. “The virus is now amongst us in the community, and the authorities will have to prepare themselves to tackle it accordingly,” Dr Kakkilaya added.