Dakshina Kannada link to latest COVID case in Bhatkal?

Three members of the family had been from Bhatkal to Mangaluru on April 20

Karwar: The Uttara Kannada district administration has found that three family members of the 18-year-old COVID positive from Bhatkal (P-659) had been to the First Neuro hospital in Mangaluru on April 20.
Addressing reporters through video conferencing, Uttara Kannada Deputy Commissioner Dr. Harish Kumar said that the girl did not have a travel history of going to any other place or abroad.

He said that the age and sex of the patient were wrongly mentioned in the afternoon bulletin and said that the officials have assured to correct it in the evening bulletin. (The afternoon bulletin had mentioned P-659 as a 28-year-old male from Bhatkal.)

“The three family members had taken a pass from the district administration for a medical emergency on April 18 and on the next day they went to Mangaluru. There they stayed in their relative’s house and on April 20 they went to the First Neuro hospital for treatment,” the DC said.

The family was in the hospital between 9 am and 3 pm and then returned to Bhatkal.

“The girl did not go out of the house. But her family members had gone to the hospital in Mangaluru. We have seen that many patients and the contacts of the patients related to this hospital were tested positive. Two patients of that hospital had died. Considering all this we are probing if the source of COVID-19 for P-569 was that hospital,” Dr. Harish Kumar said.

The officials are identifying the primary and secondary contacts of the girl and have also collected the throat swabs of the 10 family members of the house.

“We have sent the swab to the lab in Bengaluru as Mangaluru lab is too crowded. Once we get the report we will be able to properly track the case,” he added.

As sending people from the district to another district under a medical emergency could lead to a problem, the district administration is also trying to see if they could be treated within the district or any other best alternative.

“Bhatkal is already under the containment zone. Though there was some relaxation, we will make more strict henceforth. Nobody would be allowed to enter or exit,” he added.

First Neuro Hospital was declared containment zone on April 23.
On April 18, P-390 from Bantwal with the respiratory problem got admitted to Wenlock district hospital and died on the next day. She had earlier visited First Neuro hospital as her mother in law was under treatment there. The mother in law (P-432) tested positive on Thursday afternoon and died on the same day. Later some of the other patients, their close contacts, and also an employee of the hospital tested positive.

People are confused about why the Dakshina Kannada district administration did not intimate the Uttara Kannada district administration about the outpatient who had been to the hospital.