A handful of wards have persistently stayed on the watchlist of civic officials for the past two months since they recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the city.
Data from the Department of Health and Family Welfare has revealed the city has officially found 3,808 cases over the last 10 days. In the same period, Bellandur, Hagadur, Shantala Nagar and Gandhi Nagar wards clocked the highest percentage of cases in the city.
In fact, data from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) shows that Bellandur and Hagadur wards have consistently recorded the highest percentage of Covid-19 cases in the city since the start of the year, occasionally followed by the Shantala Nagar ward.
Mahadevapura Zone has been registering the lion’s share of Covid-19 cases in the city since November. “For several weeks, we had the numbers under control, but with the emergence of several clusters, the numbers have gone back (up),” said a zonal official.
“The problem is concentrated somewhat in the labour camps, especially those in Bellandur, but we are also seeing a handful of cases emerging every day from apartments in the zone. We think there is a Kerala connection to these cases,” the official added. Mahadevapura Zone has between 450 and 500 apartment complexes.
“With all the malls, movie theatres and other areas of public congregation such as temples having been opened up, how do you enforce social distancing in these places?” asked the official.
Rajbir Singh, chief marshal, BBMP, explained that it has become challenging to enforce social distancing and mask regulations in teeming labour camps. “It is often only when people are in public spaces that we can find them or subject them to an RT-PCR test,” he said.
This is corroborated by data that shows that Mahadevapura Zone has one of the lowest enforcement rates of regulations among the problematic zones.
On March 10, for example, only 0.35 violations were logged on average per ward in the zone, compared to 1.81 violations in Bommanahalli and 0.59 in the East Zone. Violations were only recorded in K R Puram Ward within the zone.
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However, Mahadevapura officials said wedding and temple halls account for nearly 80% of social distancing and mask violations because there are no curbs at these places.
The BBMP confirmed that there is no current limit on the number of people who can congregate at weddings, temples or public spaces.
“This is as per the state guidelines. We are deploying BBMP marshals at these locations,” the Palike said.
Singh said only 50% of the marshal force has been able to operate on social-distancing checks, owing to its other responsibilities.
Meanwhile, N A Haris, MLA of Shantala Nagar constituency, said there was no evidence to suggest that the numbers are increasing in Shantala Ward. “I live in the ward and there has been no panic here,” he said.