New Covid-19 clusters in Bengaluru college, luxury apartment puts authorities on high alert

The emergence of two new Covid-19 clusters in Bengaluru has put municipal authorities on high alert even as the city braces for a potential rise in cases during the holiday season.

At an engineering college on Mysuru Road, students alleged that a cluster of cases had been found. Students alleged that 23 of them had developed a Covid-19 infection after some students attended a DJ concert on Christmas Day and subsequently began showing symptoms of the disease.

Some of the cases are being covered up by the college because it’s pressuring students to attend offline classes, a student claimed.

Speaking to DH, the college principal rejected the claims and specified that only four students from the third and fourth years had tested positive after attending the concert.

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“None of the students is a hostel resident and they have not visited the campus since testing positive,” he said, adding that the college will enlist the support of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to test students on campus.

He added that the college learned about the cases on Tuesday morning. The BBMP said that it had not yet been officially informed about the student cases.

BBMP officials said they are also grappling with a smattering of cases at a luxury apartment complex in Rajajinagar. “The first cases started to be detected a week ago and every day, two to three cases are being found at the location. Now, the total number of cases is 23,” said Dr K V Thrilok Chandra, Special Commissioner (Health), BBMP.

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Dr Deepak, the BBMP’s Zonal Commissioner for West Zone, said that the cases were being found on different floors of this 30-odd-story apartment complex.

“We suspect that the vector location was a badminton tournament which happened on December 19,” he said, adding that it was not yet known if any of the infected have a travel history.

“None of the cases has been hospitalised to date. Their samples have been sent for genomic sequencing,” he added.

BBMP sources described it as the largest residential cluster to be found in weeks. The next largest active residential cluster comprises 12 cases at a gated community in Bellandur.

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