BELAGAVI: In a span of a mere week (from April 10 to April 17), Belagavi district, where bypolls to a Lok Sabha and assembly seat were held on Saturday, reported 780 new cases, 497 or 64% of them from Belagavi city alone.
At the beginning of April, fresh cases in the district were less than 30 a day – single digits on some days – and most cases were reported from Athai taluk which saw an influx of people from Maharashtra.
However, the district administration clamped down on travellers and made it mandatory for those coming from across the border to carry negative RT-PCR reports. This brought the rate of infections down considerably.