Bengaluru's Covid-19 count jumps, records 1,172 cases

The number of Covid-19 cases continued to rise on Saturday, with the city recording 1,172 cases and an unprecedented 24 deaths.

With this, the number of Covid-19 cases touched 8,345, of which 86% or 7,250 are active cases. The number of fatalities also rose on Friday from 105 to 129.

The disclosures have come along with the low testing figures. On Friday, the BBMP tested 4,662 samples for Covid-19, while on Saturday it reported no tests had been done.

Meanwhile, the positivity rate of cases per test done in the city has climbed to 6.92% — up by four points since June 28.

The bulk of Saturday’s cases were males (771), in addition to 401 females. As in previous days, the bulk of male cases are in their thirties (176), while the majority female cases are in their twenties. Fifty-six women are in the vulnerable range of 60 years and above, as are nine female toddlers.

Among the males, 108 people are in the vulnerable age range of 60 and above, as are 15 toddlers. All the cases in the city are listed as “contact under tracing”, signifying that they are new cases, without a confirmed origin source of the infection.

However, official epidemiological charts shared with DH shows that the disease’s growth rate was 18% as of July 3, with the city taking roughly about 17 days to double its number of cases. That presupposes that on July 21, the city will likely have 16,690 cases.

At the same time, however, the RO (which indicates disease contagiousness) is about 0.95, which indicates that each infected person will infect only one additional person.

24 deaths recorded

The 24 deaths disclosed on Saturday include 17 deaths which happened in June. Officials could not be contacted to comment on why the backlog of cases was not reported earlier.

The death of a 29-year-old man was unusual since he was asymptomatic, but died on June 25. He was HBsAG-positive (Australia Antigen), indicating that he also had Hepatitis B.

An 84-year-old man — also asymptomatic — died on June 26. He also had comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension, and Ischemic Heart Disease. Three people died at home and were discovered to be Covid positive in posthumous testing.