All of Kodagu on tenterhooks as officials trace every contact of corona+ person

Mysuru: A 35-year-old man from Kodagu who tested positive for the Covid-19 virus on Thursday is causing concern to health authorities in Karnataka as he is said to have come in contact with a very large number of people.

There have been 15 COVID-19 positive cases in Karnataka so far.

The district administration of Mysuru has identified at least 331 persons with whom he came into direct contact with before he was taken into isolation at the Kodagu district government hospital.

These include people who were exposed to him during his journey in a BMTC bus from the Bengaluru Airport to the Satellite bus stop on Mysuru road and then during the bus journey to Kodagu in a KSRTC Rajahamsa bus.

In between, he visited a hotel, travelled in an auto three times, visited his sister's family and a relative's family and a dargah in a village in Kodagu, and met a friend who accompanied him to hospital. 

The 35-year-old businessman from Dubai is a native of Kethmotte in Virajpet taluk in Kodagu. He arrived in Bengaluru on March 15 evening, and reached his native place on March 16 early morning. He went to the Kodagu district hospital on the evening of March 17 with a fever. He was admitted to an isolation ward in the hospital and his throat swab was sent for testing on the same day.

His results arrived Thursday, stating him to be corona positive. He is being treated at the Kodagu district hospital and his condition is stable.

All three members from his family are being home quarantined. They do not have any symptoms so far, according to Kodagu district health officer Dr K Mohan.

The Kodagu district administration has notified an area within 500 m of his house as the containment zone and quarantined as many as 304 people, including three members of his family in Kethmotte.

They have notified the Kondageri area, which is within 5 km of his house as a buffer zone as per the Epidemic Diseases Act. This area includes 247 houses with as many as 1054 people.

A temporary checkpost has been set up to ensure that people from the containment zone do not go out and no one enters it.

Free rations are being provided to Kethmotte people through the food and civil supplies department.

Closure of all shops including provisions and vegetable shops and medical shops has been ordered in the buffer zone, according to Kodagu deputy commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy.

Based on the patient’s statement, health officials have traced the man’s detailed travel history. They have identified passengers on Indigo flight number 6E96 from Dubai to Bengaluru in which he landed at the Kempegowda International Airport at 4.15 pm on 15 March. The Health Officials suspect that the person might have come to contact with over 300 persons while he was boarding a BMTC bus at Airport and when he alighted at Satellite bus stop, before going to the KSRTC bus stand.

Before reaching satellite bus stand at 6.30 pm, he went to the Albek hotel at Malleswaram for dinner at 7 pm and returned to Satellite bus stand at 10 pm. He travelled in an auto both ways. He also waited at the Satellite bus stand till 11.30 pm and boarded a Rajahamsa bus number KA19 F 3170 headed towards Moornadu in Kodagu at 11.33 pm. 

The bus stopped at the KSRTC bus stand in Mysuru at around 2.30 am on 16 March and the patient has claimed that he did not get got down there. He reached Moornadu at 5.30 am and took an auto and reached his home at Kethmotte around 6 am. From 6 am to 11am, he stayed at home. At 11.30 am he had left along with his family members to his sister’s home in Kunjila village in a car. 

They reached Kunjila village at 2 pm. From there he went to Kunjila Dargah from 2 pm to 3pm. From there he went o another relative’s place in the same village from 3 pm to 6 pm. And he was back home at Kethmotte around 8 pm.

On 17 March he went to the Kodagu district hospital by car along with a friend who lives at the Madikeri toll gate bus stand. And he complained of fever and was admitted in an isolation ward in the Kodagu district hospital at 11am on Wednesday.

While the health department is tracking all those with whom he came in contact, the Kodagu district administration has issued an advisory to passengers who travelled in the same flight and bus to report to the nearest government hospital immediately/ 

Health department officials have however claimed that the man did not have any symptoms on his arrival at Bengaluru airport. 

The Kodagu administration is taking all precautionary measures on a war footing. As many as 100 beds for isolation of patients and 150 beds to quarantine have been arranged.

As a precautionary measure, Kodagu deputy commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy has imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 (3) of the CRPC from Thursday till the 31st of this month. 

She has ordered closure of hotels, resorts, home stays and lodges in Kodagu and prohibited the general public and tourists from staying there except for those who have been quarantined.

And she informed that tourist destinations, which have been closed since March 14, will continued to be closed until March 31.