With soaring positive cases in other districts, Mysuru scores 0 from 90

Mysore/Mysuru: Mysuru District, a Red Zone with 90 positive cases, has now become ‘COVID-19-free’ with the discharge of the last two patients who were being treated at the designated COVID-19 Hospital on KRS Road. This remarkable achievement comes at a time when most of the districts in Karnataka are grappling with soaring positive cases.

As per the data reported in these columns, the first positive case was reported on Mar. 21 and the last case was reported on Apr. 29. Among the 90 cases, Nanjangud cluster — Jubilant Generics — alone accounted for 74 while 10 cases were linked to a religious gathering in New Delhi. Two among them were Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) cases while two other cases belonged to Kerala.

Of the 90 patients, 81 were men and nine were women. Four persons were above 60 years of age and one a child aged 7. Though it was a challenge for the District Administration to combat the disease, the first silver lining came on Apr. 7, when the first patient was cured. The district did not look back since then and patients were cured batch by batch till May 15 (yesterday) when the last two patients were discharged.

Leadership role

In the fight against COVID-19, there were over 15,000 personnel from various wings of the District Administration and the team was led by a combination of officers led by Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar, Superintendent of Police C.B. Ryshyanth, Mysuru City Police Commissioner Dr. Chandragupta, Mysuru City Corporation Commissioner Gurudatta Hegde, Deputy Commissioner of Police Dr. A.N. Prakash Gowda, District Health Officer Dr. Venkatesh and Dean and Director of Mysore Medical College and Research Institute Dr. C.P. Nanjaraj.

Efficient steps

The officers first declared Nanjangud as a Cluster Containment Zone and strictly enforced lockdown rules. They traced and quarantined all employees of Jubilant Generics and also their primary and secondary contacts. This proved a major success and a similar approach was done to handle returnees from the New Delhi religious congregation. Even the SARI cases were effectively handled and their contacts were quarantined.

Though the lockdown and containment zones in Nanjangud and Mysuru were curfew-like measures, essential supplies were ensured to all those quarantined and all the places that were declared containment zones did not face any issues in the supply chain. Strict enforcement of containment measures and timely contact tracing ensured that there was no community spread.

Supporting the leadership were MCC Health Officers Dr. D.G. Nagaraju, Dr. Jayanth, District Vector-Borne Diseases Control Officer Dr. Chidambara and Food and Civil Supplies Department Joint Director Shivanna. There were more than 150 doctors and frontline staff, 9,000 Policemen, over 1,000 home guards, 2,500 Pourakarmikas, 50 members of MCC Abhaya Team, 650 nurses and 1,825 ASHA workers supporting the leadership.

Renewed vigour and alert

In a Facebook live message last evening, DC Abhiram Sankar thanked the doctors and paramedical staff besides the general public for their relentless efforts in containing the spread of the pandemic. “This is no time for celebration but calls for renewed vigour and alert,” Sankar said pointing out that other districts which were in the green zone are now classified under red zone due to the sudden spike in the cases.

The DC urged people to maintain social distancing in public places and also to give extra care to vulnerable groups, such as senior citizens, pregnant women, children and patients. He said in case of people returning from other States or districts, institutional quarantine was mandatory for all except for those severely ill or pregnancy cases for which home quarantine was allowed.

“A few people are objecting to the quarantine but quarantine is not to harass but to protect the community,” he said. As on Friday, there were 568 people under institutional quarantine in Mysuru and all their samples have been collected for testing. “If not for the co-operation of the people, it would not have been possible to contain the disease and a large number of people joined hands with the administration,” he said.

DC’s message

“I thank all the officers, elected representatives, staff, media and all NGOs for their untiring commitment and steadfast dedication, which helped Mysuru reach the stage it is in, today. A battle is won but the war is just starting. Let’s keep working like this till we win the war in Mysuru. Also, credit goes to the people of Mysuru for their co-operation and understanding.” —Abhiram G. Sankar, Deputy Commissioner, Mysuru.