Covid-19: Concern as Karnataka districts along Kerala border inch towards 5% TPR

Against the backdrop of Karnataka reporting a 34% hike in daily new cases on Thursday, virologist and state Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) member Dr V Ravi said that if the test positivity rate (TPR) breaches 5%, it’s a cause for worry.

As per the latest state war room report, four districts along the Kerala border have a weekly TPR (average of seven days from July 23 to 29) inching towards 5%: Dakshina Kannada (4.42%), Chikkamagaluru (3.67%), Kodagu (3.44%) and Udupi (3.39%). Dakshina Kannada currently has 2,688 active cases, up from 1,933 two weeks ago.

“At Talapady check-post near Mangaluru along the Kerala-Karnataka border, about 150 to 170 people who have no negative RT-PCR test report or vaccination certificate are being swabbed daily. At railway stations, up to 50 swabs are being taken daily. The plan is to ramp up testing at 12 such entry points into the state across the district. People from Kasargod, which reports 700 cases daily, come here every day,” said Dakshina Kannada district health officer Dr Kishore Kumar.

Interstate buses were recently allowed between Kasargod and Mangaluru.

As per the figures shared by Dr Ashok H, Dakshina Kannada district nodal officer for Covid-19, taluks with a weekly TPR higher than 5% are Mangaluru (5.42%) and Sullia (5.89%).

Belthangady and Puttur also come close with 4.57% and 4.29% TPR respectively. Bantwal reported 3.43% TPR. Out of 44,812 samples tested from July 23 to 29, the district had 2,016 patients testing positive and the TPR reached 4.5%.

Exactly a month ago, Dakshina Kannada was elevated into a category-1 district with respect to unlocking measures as it had shown a reduction in TPR, which reversed on Thursday.

Dr Kumar pointed out, “Almost all activities were opened up four weeks ago. There’s no weekend curfew like before. The main aspect the district administration will focus on is increasing the number of tests. The migrating population will be strictly screened at checkpoints. Even in interior rural areas, our staff are conducting tests.”

While 1,422 active cases were reported in rural areas of the district in the last 14 days, 1,070 cases were reported in urban areas.

Compounding the problem is the fact that the district received 9,000 odd vaccine doses last Monday and hasn’t received a single dose after that.

“We’ve been told that 15,000 more doses have been allocated but we haven’t received any. The district has a target of vaccinating 1.78 lakh college students and staff. About 80% of them have been given at least one dose. But we don’t know how many medical students from Kerala coming to Mangaluru have been vaccinated,” he added.