Bengaluru Which Recently Shut Down India's Largest COVID Centre Now Has More Cases Than Mumbai
But since mid-July, things started changing for Bengaluru which was reporting the highest infection rate in India. It only got worse for the Karnataka capital in the weeks and months that followed.
As unbelievable as it might sound, Bengaluru now has more COVID-19 cases than Mumbai, the city which for the longest time held the dubious record of being the COVID-19 capital of India.
Earlier this week, Bengaluru overtook Mumbai to become the second worst-affected metro city in India due to COVID-19 after Delhi.
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It was only on September 3 that Bengaluru overtook Chennai, and on July 3, the city raced past Kolkata.
This is in sharp contrast to a couple of months ago when Bengaluru was hailed for its containment of the spread of COVID-19 when all the other metros were on their knees.
But since mid-July, things started changing for Bengaluru which was reporting the highest infection rate in India.
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It only got worse for the Karnataka capital in the weeks and months that followed.
Over 5000+ daily cases spike
Over the past two weeks, Bengaluru had been recording over 5000 new cases every day and as of Friday morning, 1,84,082 confirmed COVID-19 infections, out of which 41,053 are active.
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However, Bengaluru's COVID-19 deaths are far better than of Mumbai. While Mumbai has recorded 8,323 COVID-19 deaths, the numbers for Bengaluru stood at 2,555.
Post Unlock, cases rose
Like most of the cities, Unlock and the rush to go back to being normal was when the Bengaluru started showing a spike in the number of COVID-19 infections.
People not following COVID-19 guidelines and adhering to social distancing rules is also one of the major reasons behind the rise in cases in Bengaluru.
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With an alarming spike in COVID-19 cases, the IT hub is struggling to arrange hospital beds of patients.
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has issued a final show-cause notice to 36 private hospitals in the city for not allocating 50 per cent of their total beds to government-assigned patients.
BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad issued show-cause notices to the 36 hospitals on Wednesday night and has given them a 48-hour deadline to adhere to the official order.
Prasad also warned the hospitals that if they fail to comply, the BBMP would initiate action under section 15 and 19 of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act (KPME) and suspend their registration with immediate effect, along with imposing fines and even imprisonment.
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The BBMP has also warned that they will book the concerned hospitals under the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Ordinance, 2020.
Incidentally, just two weeks ago BBMP had announced that it is shutting down the 10,100 bedded COVID Care Centre at the Bengaluru Exhibition Center citing a drop in the number of cases there.
It was also decided that the furniture bought for the centre like- beds, mattress, pedestal fans, dustbins, water dispensers among others will be given to government-run hostels and hospitals at free of cost.
Several other COVID-19 care centres were also expected to be closed in the following days.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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