Coronavirus: No home isolation for East zone patients

There will be no more home isolation for asymptomatic Covid-19 patients from the East zone. They will be moved to Covid care centres, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) decided on Wednesday, following a big spike in coronavirus cases.

Starting Wednesday (July 22), all asymptomatic patients from the 25 wards of the zone, which is spread over six assembly constituencies — CV Raman Nagar, Pulakeshi Nagar, Sarvagnanagar, Shivajinagar, Hebbal and Shanthinagar — will be sent to Covid care centres.

Besides, all the 400 plus asymptomatic patients who had tested positive on July 20 and 21 and were under home isolation will also be sent to these centres.

Population density

BBMP Joint Commissioner (East), Pallavi K R, said the decision was taken keeping in mind the high density of the population in the zone, which covers large parts of the CBD.

"East zone is dotted with large slums which have reported a high number of Covid cases. It takes a lot of time for healthcare workers to verify each case and follow them up daily,” Pallavi said.

Many asymptomatic patients want to stay at home but following them up every day is not easy, Pallavi said. "Their family members also need to be checked as they may have got the infection. This is also true of the neighbours. This is why we have decided to shift all asymptomatic cases to Covid care centres,” the officer explained.

New cases only

Clearing the confusion, Pallavi said only asymptomatic cases reported on July 20 and 21 would be shifted to the Covic care centres and that those tested earlier and recovering at home would not be disturbed.