Slum In Bengaluru Sealed After 10 People Test Positive For COVID-19

So far, 445 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Karnataka, (File)

A municipal ward in Bengaluru has been partially sealed after 10 positive cases of COVID-19 surfaced there over the last two days. The area -- Hongasandra in the southeastern part of the city -- is home to more than 1,000 people. Many of them are labourers engaged in the city's metro rail project, who live in slums.

"It has been decided to conduct tests on everyone living in the area, 184 people have been quarantined at designated places," said Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar after visiting the area.

The outbreak of the highly contagious virus in densely populated areas, like slum clusters, is cause for concern. In Mumbai's Dharavi, which is Asia's largest slum, the number of coronavirus cases has crossed 200 within three weeks.Thirteen people have died.

The first patient from Hongasandra is a 54-year-old migrant labourer from Bihar who was working on the metro project.

Health officials said the man has been ailing for a week, but his room-mates did not take it seriously. He was admitted to hospital on Tuesday with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection, and later tested positive for the virus.

It is not yet clear how the man had contracted the infection. When the lockdown began, he had started cooking and delivering food to others and is likely to have come in contact with a large number of people.

The food was transferred in an auto-rickshaw, whose driver and his family --wife and son -- have also been quarantined.

On Wednesday, a small hospital at Hongasandra was sealed when a woman patient treated there tested positive for coronavirus.

A doctor and three nurses had refused to cooperate with authorities when the hospital was being sealed. They were persuaded only after the intervention of local police.

The doctor and nurses have been quarantined at home, sources said.

So far, 445 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Karnataka. The figure includes 17 people who died after contracting the disease and 145 people who have recovered.

Across the state, 18,247 people who were in contact with the patients are under observation.