3 new clusters in Yelahanka with 28 Covid-19 cases

Eight cases detected in Agragami college, five in apartment and 15 in Sambhram academy

Three new Covid clusters have come up in Yelahanka with 28 people testing positive for the disease.

Eight tested positive in Agragami college, five in Purva Venezia apartment and 15 students in Sambhram Academy of Management Studies (SAMS).

Six of the 28 patients are in various city hospitals, while the rest are in home quarantine, Dr Vijayendra B K, Chief Health Officer, Public Health, BBMP, confirmed to DH.

With the three in Yelahanka, the total number of clusters in the city has gone up to six. Two of them are in apartments in Bommanahalli and Bellandur, and one in Manjushree Nursing College.

At Sambhram academy

From samples collected at SAMS over four days from February 22 to 25, 1,156 Covid tests have been done. Of the 15 students who tested positive (in the age group of 18 to 23), two are women and 12 men.

While nine of them first tested positive, six are primary contacts.

Read | Lowering of guard: Bengaluru apartments must try to stop coronavirus surge

Dr K C Mishra, principal, SAMS, told DH: “Cases detected belong to the third semester undergraduate students.”

The college has not been holding classes or exams now. While local students are few, 10 are from Kerala. A mere 20 to 30% students attend college. Students have been quarantined in paying guest accommodations. None of them require hospitalisation.

The college official said a barricade exists between the college and the engineering college. Only the fifth-semester students will have college on March 8, which is also likely to be postponed. “Only first-year classes are pending and we are preparing to hold them online,” the principal said.

At the apartment

Meanwhile, at Purva Venezia apartment, a 62-year-old man’s a trip to Mumbai last week has proved costly as his 90-year-old father-in-law and 80-year-old mother-in-law tested positive despite living in a different tower block in the 16-block apartment. Both were in contact with the Mumbai returnee.

While the Mumbai returnee is in one of the three Aster hospitals, the elderly couple has been isolated in MS Ramaiah Hospital on New BEL Road.

Dr Naresh Shetty, President, MS Ramaiah Hospital, said: “They are in the general ward and are stable. They had no travel history. Their samples haven’t been sent for genomic sequencing yet.”

Sequencing is vital in this case since the Union Health Ministry had recently announced that Maharashtra has the South Africa variant of the coronavirus. Unless the Ct values (an indicator of the viral load in the body) of the samples are below 25, they cannot be sequenced.

"The 80-year-old woman has interstitial lung disorder with fibrotic changes and was already on home oxygen. Hence, it is difficult to determine the correct Ct value. Her husband is recovering already, which means the disease has settled," Dr Shetty said.

On February 24, 111 tests were done at the Purva Venezia apartment, in which five tested positive. These five generated six primary contacts. The other two residents, a woman and a man, have been home quarantined.

At Agragami college

Agragami college, located on Major Akshay Girish Kumar Road in Yelahanka Satellite Town, currently has two men and one woman. Both are bring treated at the Yelahanka General Hospital. Seven of them are men and one woman, all aged 20 and 21. The eight Covid positive students have three primary contacts.

In all, 266 tests have been done in the college on February 23 and 24, and the eight students have so far generated 49 primary contacts and 58 secondary contacts.