Family breaks home quarantine, comes down with Covid

A family which flouted home quarantine regulations has now contracted Covid-19 and is at the heart of a new cluster found in the Yelahanka zone, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) disclosed on Thursday.

The index case was a man who returned from Kerala to an apartment building in Vidyaranyapura on March 1. When he developed the symptoms of Covid-19 a week later, he visited the local Primary Health Centre (PHC), where he was found positive for the disease. The BBMP said that it immediately tested all 19 residents of the apartment building and told them to maintain strict home isolation.

"In spite of our instructions, four members of a family residing on the first floor of the apartment broke quarantine regulations to visit Iskcon on March 9," the BBMP said, adding they developed symptoms of the disease on March 14.

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When they got themselves tested on the following day, the four individuals who were all members of the same family learned that they had the disease. When the BBMP re-tested all other apartment residents on March 17, it found two more cases among people living on the third floor.

"When we quizzed why they had broken home quarantine to go out, the family claimed they did so because they had initially tested positive," a zonal official said.

The BBMP Commissioner, N Manjunatha Prasad, said notices had been issued against the family under the National Disaster Management Act.

Two more clusters

To add to Yelahanka's woes, the BBMP has found another two clusters in the zone. One involves a family of seven who attended a marriage in RT Nagar on March 2. When a marriage attendee turned positive, the family members who are residents of a duplex in BEL Layout got themselves tested at the Thindlu PHC shortly after. "All were found to be positive after test results were disclosed on Thursday," a BBMP official said.

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The last cluster was found at another duplex in Chikkabommasandra, when upon intimation from the war room of two positive cases, prompted the BBMP to test nine residents of the duplex house who had been visited by the two positive cases. Three residents were found to be positive. The confirmation result of a fourth person who also tested positive is awaited.