Bengaluru apartment sealed over UK variant COVID scare

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) sealed an entire apartment complex in Bommanahalli zone after two patients testing positive for the new UK variant of the novel coronavirus, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) sealed an entire apartment complex in Bommanahalli zone.

Both the family members and neighbours of those who tested positive did not want to move into an institutional quarantine facility.

The new UK variant is believed to be more infectious than other variants of the novel coronavirus.

Senior IPS officer Manivannan P, in-charge of COVID-19 management in the zone, told TNM that the barricades may be removed within the next two days depending on the swab results.  Patients who test positive for the virus will then be taken to a hospital for further supervision.

Dr GK Suresh, Deputy Health Officer, Bommanahalli Zone said that as many as 37 persons residing in 12 apartments could have potentially been affected by this and therefore, all of them have been subjected to RT-PCR tests.

With the daily number of COVID-19 cases down and gradual ease of restrictions in Bengaluru, barricading entire apartment complexes or streets had become a thing of the past.

It was earlier reported that a woman and her child (recent returnees from the UK) were among the three who had been found to have been infected by the new strain of the virus in Karnataka.

It was also reported that all their primary and secondary contacts were being traced and tested.

The woman and her child are currently under medical supervision at the Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru.

So far 29 persons in the state who had recently returned from the UK have tested positive for the virus.

Their samples have been collected and have been sent for genome sequencing to ascertain if they have been infected with the UK variant of the virus.

In India, twenty people have been confirmed to have been affected by the UK variant of the coronavirus.