816 civic workers infected with Covid-19, Palike tells Karnataka High Court

The BBMP on Wednesday informed the high court that 816 pourakarmikas, including supervisors and drivers, have tested positive for Covid-19, and 52 of them have been sent to home isolation.

The bench asked the BBMP whether any verification has been carried out on the facilities in cases of home isolation.

A written submission by the BBMP stated that a total of 11,902 pourakarmikas were subjected to Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) and 3,872 of them were further subjected to confirmatory RT-PCR tests. As per the results, 816 pourakarmikas tested positive. Of these, 423 were admitted in different hospitals, 341 to Covid Care Centres (CCCs) and 52 were put under home isolation.

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A division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar asked whether the BBMP verified if the facilities for the pourakarmikas under home isolation were adequate.

Home isolation cases

The court asked the BBMP to submit whether separate rooms with attached washrooms are available in the houses of those pourakarmikas under home isolation.

The bench also asked the BBMP to specify whether those who tested negative in RAT, but showed symptoms have been directed to stay in home quarantine.

The court asked the state government to submit the reasons for not conducting tests on all pourakarmikas across the state. The counsel for the petitioner informed the court that only the pourakarmikas in Bengaluru under the BBMP limits are being subjected to compulsory RAT and RT-PCR tests.

The next hearing on a batch of petitions over the issues surrounding Covid-19 has been posted to August 26.