JSW plant Covid-19 cluster grows, keeps Ballari administration on its toes

Ballari district continued to see a spurt in Covid-19 cases with 28 fresh infections in the last 24 hours. The district tally has jumped to 470 with Jindal steel plant at Toranagallu alone accounting for more than 90% of the reported cases.

Among the fresh cases reported on Monday, 20 are linked to the Jindal (JSW) cluster. Six patients with influenza-like illness, including a month-old baby girl, have also tested positive for novel coronavirus. Contact-tracing is underway for two cases.

The district also third Covid-19 fatality on Monday. A 60-year-old woman, a known case of diabetes mellitus, died of multiple organ failure in the early hours of Monday at the designated hospital. She was admitted to VIMS after testing positive for virus on June 17. She was put on ventilator after her condition worsened. Despite best efforts, the woman failed to respond to treatment and died, Deputy Commissioner S S Nakul told reporters.

The district also saw 28 patients walk out of the VIMS, post-recovery on Monday.

Meanwhile, nine contacts of an 18-year-old pregnant woman from Harihar tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday.

The woman had attended a wedding at her maternal home at Rajanahalli on June 15. An elderly woman from the virus-hit Jalinagar in Davangere had also attended the event. Four days later, the pregnant woman (Patient 8065) tested positive for coronavirus.

Six people at her husband’s house at Agasara Beedhi in Harihar, and three, including her mother, at Rajanahalli, have tested positive for virus.
On Sunday, seven of a Channagiri family had contracted virus from a 56-year-old woman (P7353), who’d lost her battle against Covid-19 at McGann Hospital on June 16.

With this, Davangere district’s Covid-19 tally has shot up to 265 (38 cases are active).

Former Magadi MLA and Congress leader H C Balakrishna on Monday tweeted saying that his daughter, a doctor at KIMS, Bengaluru, has contracted Covid-19 while on duty. She’d complained of fever two days back. Her throat swab sample returned positive on Monday.

Three persons have contracted the virus in Ramanagara town. Meanwhile, the district has reported two deaths in three days. A 45-year-old man from Kanakapura, with complaints of SARI and TB, had died at a Bengaluru hospital on June 15.

A 90-year-old man, asymptomatic but a known case of hypertension, died at his house on June 20. His swab sample returned positive for virus on Monday.

A bus conductor with NWKRTC from Yellapur depot, in Uttara Kannada, and an employee of Chamarajanagar taluk Land Survey and Records department have tested positive for the virus on Monday.