Four police stations in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi districts sealed after cops test +ve

Mangaluru/Udupi: The coastal districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada on Sunday recorded yet another big spike in Covid-19 cases, with 24 people testing positive, including 23 people from Udupi, on a day that a curfew was enforced. Ringing alarm bells for the two districts was the fact that 4 of those who tested positive were police personnel, due to which four police stations , including 3 in Udupi, were sealed for a mandatory 48-hour period.

G Jagadeesha, deputy commissioner, Udupi, said 16 of the 23 positive cases reported are people who had come to the district from Maharashtra, and one each from those who returned from Telangana and Dubai, respectively. Three cases – those of policemen from Ajekar, Karkala Rural and Brahmawar police stations—are contacts of those in quarantine, and contacts of two patients, including a pregnant woman, are being traced, Jagadeesha said.

Superintendent of police N Vishnuvardhan and his team, in accordance with the SOP laid down, with assistance from health department officials, have taken steps to sanitize the police stations and function with skeletal staff drawn from other police stations in Karkala Circle. The police personnel have been shifted to TMA Pai Hospital, he said. The process of tracing primary and secondary contacts of these policemen has been initiated, he said.

The case of a woman nearing her full-term pregnancy testing positive, has baffled health authorities. “The woman is due to deliver in the next 10-15 days, and the source of her contracting the disease is not known. She has been shifted to the designated Covid hospital for treatment, and due care will be taken, given her present condition,” the DC said, adding all her primary and secondary contacts will be traced and quarantined to prevent further spread of the disease.

The lone positive case from Dakshina Kannada was a police constable from Vittal police station, said SP B M Laxmi Prasad. Designated P-2023, he is a secondary contact of a P-1233, who had come from Maharashtra and had been briefly brought to the police station in an ambulance, en route to the quarantine centre. “All our personnel are issued fresh masks daily, and have been provided with face shields and hand sanitisers,” said the SP.

With the day’s development, Dakshina Kannada has 34 active cases, including 32 residents of the district. In all, 26 patients have been discharged from the hospital after being treated. DC Sindhu B Rupesh has denotified Kakkebettu in Mangaluru taluk and Narikombu in Bantwal taluk as containment zones. Udupi has 72 active cases, and has recorded 1 death due to Covid-19.