With the number of positive cases of COVID-19 rising to 15 in Karnataka as of Thursday, 19 March, the number of patients in Bengaluru touched 11, with 3 more cases coming to light on 18 March.
According to health minister B Sriramulu, a man in Kodagu tested positive for the virus, making it the first case in the Malnad region. Section 144 has since been imposed in the district.
A 25-year-old man who returned from Spain, a 56-year-old woman who flew back from the US and a 32-year-old who also flew in from the US were the latest cases in Bengaluru.
So far, the department of health and family welfare has released the movement details and travel history of 8 people who have tested positive for COVID-19, in an attempt to do contact tracing and understand how many people could have come into primary and secondary contact with the infected individuals.
From malls to cinema halls to medical stores to tennis courts, here is what we know about their movement.
Patient 1
Bengaluru’s first case was of a techie who flew into Bengaluru via Dubai from Austin, Texas. He took the flight to Dubai from JFK airport in New York.
Upon landing in Bengaluru on 1 March, the man first went home to Whitefield and then went for lunch to a restaurant named Biryani Paradise at 2 pm.
The following day on 2 March, he visited the Loyal City supermarket from 2-3 pm, and then later in the day went to the Dell office – where he works – in Divya Shree Gardens where he stayed till 10 pm.
The following day, the techie went to watch a movie at Forum Value Mall in Whitefield, east Bengaluru. After this, he went to work at the same office location from 4-10:30 pm on 3 March.
On 5 March, the individual visited RXDX clinic in Whitefield after which he was referred to Manipal Hospital on Old Airport Road. He got back home to Whitefield by afternoon.
Two days later on 8 March, he went to the Mediwave Medical Store and Loyal Supermarket in Whitefield at 2.30 pm, returned home and got admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases later that evening.
When it comes to patients 2 and 3, they are the wife and child of the first patient, who accompanied him to the movie at Forum Valley mall in Whitefield. The wife also was along with him when he had lunch at Paradise Biryani.
Patients 2 and 3
The wife of the Dell techie, who was the first person to test positive in Bengaluru, met her husband on 1 March after he landed here.
They both visited Biryani Paradise for lunch at 2 pm and the same evening at 5:30 pm, she visited her friend who lived in the same apartment complex and took a walk around the complex with her. The following day on 3 March, all three family members went for a movie to the Forum Valley Mall that ended at 2 pm. In the evening, she took another walk in the apartment.
According to the information provided, the wife stayed home from 4-7 March, only stepping out on the evening of 7 March to take a walk with her friend in the complex.
On 8 March, she visited the same medical store with her husband, Mediwave Medical Store, after which the two went to Loyal Supermarket and returned home by 3 pm.
After meeting the dhobi on the evening of 8 March, the woman was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases in the evening.
The couple’s minor child was the third person to be tested positive in the state, also becoming the first case of a child testing positive in the state.
Apart from a visit to Forum Valley Mall with her parents, as can be seen in the chart, the child attended classes in school, went for tuition and played in the same apartment complex from 2-8 March. The child was admitted to RGICD at 8 pm after playing the same evening in the apartment complex.
Patient 4
This patient landed in Bengaluru on 8 March in the wee hours of the morning from the US via London. He was at home after landing, and went to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases at 2:30 pm where his sample was collected.
On 9 March, he was transported in an ambulance to RGICD where was admitted at 8:30 pm.
Patient 5
Contrary to the information initially provided by the health department, it was later clarified that the 5th patient, an employee at Google, had reached Bengaluru on 8 March at 9:45 pm on an Indigo flight from Mumbai.
Authorities had earlier claimed that the patient had spent some time in Mumbai on 7 March before coming to Bengaluru – but this was incorrect.
After arriving in Bengaluru, the techie took a cab and reached home by 11:30 pm. He stayed home on 9 March and the following day, went to RGICD and submitted his sample at around 6pm.
He was admitted to Jayanagar General Hospital at 8:30 on 11 March.
Patient 6
The case of the 6th patient in Kalaburagi was shrouded in mystery and confusion as the 76-year-old succumbed to the virus first, and was later declared as having been positive.
The man landed in Hyderabad on 29 February and immediately left for Kalaburagi. He had tea and food on the way at a dhaba and ended up reaching his residence in Kalaburagi at 5 pm the same day.
He stayed home from 6-9 March, and started receiving treatment at home on 9 March. He was later admitted to a private hospital where his sample was collected and sent for testing.
Now, the department maintains that the patient was discharged against medical advice late night on 9 March but his family members have since claimed that they did not know that there were adequate facilities in Kalaburagi itself.
He was admitted to CARE hospital in Hyderabad on 10 March but was discharged and brought back to Kalaburagi, where he passed away in transit. He was declared dead by Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences at 7 pm.
Patient 7
This is the case of the daughter of the first fatality due to COVID-19, the Kalaburagi senior citizen.
She met her father near his house on 29 February and stayed at her own home on 1-2 March. She met her father again on 3 March and spent 4-5 March at her own home.
She met her father at his residence on 6 March and stayed at home on 7-8 March. On 9 March, she accompanied her father in the ambulance from Kalaburagi to Hyderabad and back. She stayed with her father on 10 March and on 11 March was admitted to the hospital in Kalaburagi.
Patient 8
A 32-year-old Bengaluru resident was the 8th person to test positive after being on the same flight as the Mindtree techie who was diagnosed with COVID-19 on 10 March.
The person landed in Bengaluru from London on 8 March in the wee hours of the morning after travelling from San Antonio to Dallas to Heathrow airport in London.
He played tennis with a ‘random person’ on 9 March. The next day, he visited two of his friends in his own vehicle and later watched a movie with his wife at a Madiwala theatre.
Through contact tracing, he was found to have symptoms of a mild cold on 11 March, and he was asked to quarantine at home. For two days on 12-13 March, he was asked by the surveillance team to check himself into RGICD, but he did not heed to it.
On 14 March, he went to RGICD in the afternoon with his wife in his own vehicle. The next day, he was shifted to a designated hospital in an ambulance.
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