The Mahadevapura Zone has been registering the largest number of Covid-19 cases for the past three months, with officials saying that a large number of returning immigrants are contributing to the spike.
In many of the city’s worst-hit areas in the early stages such as Padarayanapura and Shivajinagar, officials could see the outbreak peak in three months.
Data from the BBMP revealed that the city has 7,865 active cases as on January 19, 1,208 of whom are in Mahadevapura.
The data further shows that the wards in the zone with the highest number of cases in just the last 20 days have been Bellandur, Doddanekkundi, Varthur, Horamavu and Hagadur.
A BBMP zonal officer requesting anonymity said that while the daily numbers in Mahadevapura have come down from an average of 100 per day in December to about 40 to 45 cases in January, a high rotating population of labourers was preventing the outbreak from being contained as it had in other places.
Meanwhile, Dr B K Vijendra, Chief Health Officer, BBMP, confirmed that migrant workers were feeding the outbreak in the zone.
“Social distancing is low. A second factor is the targeting testing of primary and secondary contacts in addition to senior citizens and those with symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) and Influenza-Like Illness (ILI),” Dr Vijendra said, adding that this, too, was yielding Covid cases.
The zonal officer added that the concentration of Covid cases in Bellandur, Doddanekundi and Horamavu is no accident.
“These are the hubs of the IT-BT crowd, and construction activities have resumed as well,” Dr Vijendra said.