BALLARI: The discharge of a patient, who had recovered from Covid-19, from the Sandur taluk Covid hospital on May 11 left Ballari with zero active cases. Ballari, along with 10 other districts across the state, has managed to rid itself of the infection. Not only does Ballari have no active Covid cases, the district has not reported a single fatality from the infection since May 8.
The undivided Ballari district, which includes the newly-created Vijayanagara, had, following the initial outbreak of Covid-19 in the summer of 2020, managed to keep the novel coronavirus at bay, with not a single case being reported till the last week of March. However, with migrant workers from neighbouring states returning home, the Covid curve spiralled upwards. The district was even more severely affected in the second iteration of the pandemic, with more than 20,000 people getting infected in four months. Worse still, the district’s fatality rate was as high as 2%.
The third wave of Covid-19, however, passed Ballari largely unscathed, helping the district flatten the curve. Now, with zero active cases, all the government and private Covid hospitals and Covid Care Centres have decided to close their doors temporarily.
Ballari deputy commissioner Pavan Kumar Malpati, and district health officer Dr HL Janardhan lauded the efforts of personnel, cutting across departments, for checking the transmission of the novel coronavirus. Dr Janardhan, however, stressed the need to be as cautious in the future since the future was extremely uncertain. “But we are prepared to tackle all challenges. We have fully vaccinated all the eligible people across the district. We also want to express our gratitude to the people, who have cooperated with us to help us beat Covid,” the DHO said.
Head of paediatrics department at Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences Dr H Durgappa attributed the decline in Covid cases to vaccination and development of herd immunity. “But people must continue to wear masks, and keep themselves apart in public places,” he said.
