Covid-19 numbers fall in Karnataka but Bengaluru’s share goes up

Covid-19 numbers statewide have been coming down in recent weeks, but for the first time since July 15, Bengaluru Urban’s share of daily new cases touched nearly 60% of Karnataka’s numbers on Sunday.

The numbers released on Sunday added 3,652 new cases to the state’s Covid-19 tally, out of which 2,167 new cases were in Bengaluru Urban, constituting 59.3% of the number. The next largest caseloads were registered in Mysuru (147), Hassan (144) and Tumakuru (104).

The new numbers increase the state’s active caseload to 50,592. Large numbers of patients are continuing to be discharged daily and Sunday was no exception with 8,053 being officially declared as ‘Covid-free’. Out of these, 6,018 discharges took place in Bengaluru.

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As of October 28, statewide testing numbers have once again touched about one lakh per day. On Saturday (the latest figures), 81% were RT-PCR tests. Over the last seven days, the state has registered 24,247 new cases, which is significantly lower than the 37,231 cases registered in the previous seven days before that. In the last seven days, the state also conducted 6.3 lakh tests. This suggests an “official” test positivity rate (TPR) of 3.84%.

Twenty-four new deaths were also registered in the latest Covid-19 bulletin, out of which 10 had happened in Bengaluru Urban. Most of the statewide deaths had happened on October 31. One, a 65-year-old man in Koppal had died on Sunday, nine days after being identified as a Covid-19 patient. Most of the remaining fatalities had happened days before, with the longest pending being a 56-year-old man in Dharwad who died on October 14.

The oldest fatality revealed on Sunday was a 100-year-old woman in Bengaluru Urban who had Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). She died in a private hospital on October 27, three days after being identified with the disease. There have only been three official centenarian deaths in the state so far. All of them have been in Bengaluru Urban, according to official data.

Bengaluru situation

In the city, testing numbers hit a new peak of 55,355 on October 31, according to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s Covid war room.

Over the last 10 days, the Mahadevapura zone has shown the highest growth of cases and its total caseload comprises 19% of the city’s total caseload in the last one-and-half weeks. The southern zone follows with 15% of all cases. Next are Bommanhalli and western zones with 14% of cases.

Bengaluru’s total and official positivity rate stood at 11.06% as of Saturday: this number has remained steadfast for the last few weeks.