BENGALURU: Four doctors are in home isolation after one of them came in contact with a Covid-19 patient and held a meeting with the other three medicos the next day, a case that points to lapses in taking precautions.The four doctors include the director of state-run Institute of Nephro Urology (INU). This comes days after a techie who returned from the US via London and later tested Covid-19 positive threw the home isolation rule to the wind by playing tennis on three different courts on three days and watching a movie in a theatre with his family. Karnataka recorded the first Covid-19 death in the country with a 76-year-old man from Kalburgi who returned from Saudi Arabia dying. The state has reported 14 coronavirus positive cases.One of the doctors who is now in home isolation works at Victoria Hospital , Bengaluru, whose campus houses INU. On March 15, he accompanied a 20-year-old relative, who recently returned from the UK, to the coronavirus testing centre on the campus. On March 16, he held a meeting with three doctors from INU, including the institute’s director, Dr R Keshavamurthy . Later that day, test reports revealed that the 20-year-old relative, a woman, had coronavirus.A source at Victoria claimed that before going for the test on March 15, the woman had told the doctor relative on the phone that she had some symptoms. The doctor still advised her to meet him.The directorate of the state medical education has now asked all four doctors to self-isolate for 14 days. The view in the directorate was that the doctors’ continued presence on the campus would have caused further problems for INU patients who are already immunocompromised.Speaking to TOI from his home isolation, Dr Keshavamurthy said the woman who tested positive visited the Victoria premises on March 15 to meet a faculty member, who attended the said meeting on Monday.“None of us have any symptoms, but as a precaution, we are in home isolation. The work at INU will not be hampered. I am checking all the required reports online,” Dr Keshavamurthy said, adding the woman was not related to him.The case has upset officials of the health and family welfare department, who say contact tracing of positive cases has revealed a pattern of fliers not adhering to the home isolation rule in Bengaluru. People returning from coronavirus-affected countries are required to stay home for 14 days immediately after arrival.According to health officials, the techie who returned to Bengaluru from the US via London on March 8 repeatedly ventured out of his home before he finally tested positive on March 16. During the eight-day period, the 32-year-old techie played tennis on three different courts on March 9, 10 and 11. He also watched a movie with his family in a theatre and met two friends on March 10.A senior health official said this was shocking behaviour, showing complete disregard of precautions designed specifically to prevent transmission of coronavirus. “As of now, only Patient 4, a 50-year-old who returned from the US via London on March 8, seems to have adhered to the government’s rule on home isolation. He didn’t step out, and his wife and domestic help also maintained distance. The latter have not showed any symptoms,” an official said.