Covid-19 crisis deepens in Bengaluru

The Covid-19 crisis in the city deepened on Sunday with as many as 1,235 more people contracting the virus. This brings the total number of cases to 9,580, out of which 8,167 (or 85.25%) are
active.

Sunday also saw 16 patients succumbing to the pandemic. Thirteen of the fatalities were men in the 48-71 age group and three were women. Six of the casualties had been asymptomatic up to their death, and surprisingly, three of them did not have any comorbidities. The data shows many of them died within 72 hours after being put on Covid-19 treatment.

The city had been reporting a huge spike in the cases over the past week even as the government officials claim that the situation is under control.

At a press meet on Sunday afternoon, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar described the city’s mortality rate of 1.55% as being among the lowest among four of the hardest-hit cities.

The number of hardest-hit wards increased from 34 on Friday with 43, with an additional 10 wards showing more than 10
cases.

However, the hardest-hit ward continues to be Shantala ward in the Central Business District, which reported a total of 195 cases as of Saturday.

There is a 24-hour reporting gap by the Bengaluru Bruhat Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) War Room, owing to what officials have described as the challenge of cataloguing a large number of daily cases.

Chamarajpete has 90 cases so far, while Gandhinagar follows third with 78. RR Nagar is in fourth place with 64 cases as revealed by the Palike. Of the 10 new wards disclosed on Sunday, Sampangiram Nagar has already registered 25
new cases.

High testing, high numbers, says Sudhakar

Meanwhile, Medical Education Minister S Sudhakar said that increased testing was yielding high number of cases in the city.

“The aim is to increase testing by optimal utilisation of capacity, especially in private labs. Once we increase testing, it is natural that the positive cases will also increase. So citizens need not panic due to this but take all precautionary measures,” the minister said.