Covid-19 cases in Shanthala Nagar come under dispute

As the city deals with a fearsomely high caseload of new Covid-19 patients, one ward has emerged as among an unlikely and major hotspots for the disease.

Shanthala Nagar (Ward 111), which commands a large chunk of the Central Business District (CBD), has reported at least 195 cases, according to the war room operated by the Bengaluru Bruhat Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

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Government data, accessed by DH, shows cases scattered from Vittal Mallya Road to KH Road to Brigade Road to Victoria Layout to Trinity Circle.

The high Covid numbers have alarmed residents and office workers in the ward.

The BBMP says that the ward has a population of 30,255 people across 5,040 regular households, 560 slum households and 12 large apartments, plus 61 smaller apartments or multi-unit dwellings, in an area of nearly four square kilometres.

Contradictory number

However, BBMP medical officers contradicted the war room’s figures, and said that the true number of cases in the ward is 75. “This is based on the ICMR portal, where all covid cases are listed in a centralised database,” said Dr Siddapajji, BBMP Health Officer, East Zone.

Shanthinagar MLA N A Haris said the total number of cases in his constituency was about 120. “I don’t know where they got this 195 figure from, for just Shanthala Nagar ward,” he said. He added that nearly all of the cases are primary contacts of known Covid-19 patients. “However, we don’t know about the unknown cases,” the MLA said, adding that he was pushing the idea of locking down his constituency to break the chain of infection.

Meantime, a BBMP medical officer in the Shanthala Nagar ward, said the disease had been isolated into clusters. “Only 53 cases are active,” he said.

Hephsiba Rani Korlapati, Director of the BBMP War Room, clarified that the confusion had arisen after the addresses of Covid-positive individuals were registered in the BBMP database.

“While their addresses indicate that they belong to Shanthala Nagar ward, when we physically check up on their residences, we find that they live on a street just outside on the fringes of the ward,” she said.

Second highest caseload

The ward’s confirmed caseload of 75 nevertheless makes it the second-most badly hit area in the city.

The largest cluster is at St Philomena’s Hospital where 16 hospital staffers were infected after a senior doctor’s mother was admitted with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI).

She subsequently died of Covid-19 on June 24.

The next largest clusters are spread across a large house on Vittal Mallya Road, the Yelagundapalya police quarters and several household cases in Xavier Layout and Austin Town, the BBMP said.

Several are also residents off St Mark’s Road and Brigade Road.