Bengaluru reports over 1,000 Covid-19 cases for the first time this year
Bengaluru accounted for 65 per cent of the 1,587 Covid cases reported in Karnataka on Friday. The city reported more than 1,000 new cases (1,037) after four months. It had reported 1,039 cases on November 22.
“This is a clear indication of a second wave,” said epidemiologist Dr Giridhar Babu.
“There are large super spreader events that continue to happen even today. There is no restriction on anything. There is a feeling that these events can be managed. Earlier, there was the fear factor to mitigate an adverse event. In the last four days, cases have increased rapidly.”
Dr Babu called for minimising gatherings in closed spaces and giving no relaxations. “We’ve made the environment too conducive for the virus spread. I’m also for not imposing a lockdown but the alternative should be stricter restrictions. With neither happening, it is difficult to contain the spread,” he explained.
Dr C N Manjunath, a member of the Covid Technical Advisory Committee, said that the positivity rate in Karnataka stood at 1.7 per cent as nearly 1,600 cases were reported out of 92,000 tests done. Two weeks ago, it was 0.7 per cent. Within 14 days, it has jumped by one full percent. “The incidence is going up. The same pattern was observed in England, Italy and France,” he stated.
“Once the cases came down, after a gap of four to five months, they spiked again. Religious festivals and temple fairs scheduled for March and April have to be disallowed. This will be a major source of infection in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. If we fall back on contact-tracing and don’t quarantine the family members of positive patients, it will be difficult to contain the virus,” he added.
With 10 deaths, the death toll has risen to 12,425. Among the 10 deaths, six were from Bengaluru Urban, two from Mysuru and one each from Bidar and Dharwad.
The total infections stand at 9,66,689. Out of 12,067 active cases, 131 are in the ICU. Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Kalaburagi reported 61, Tumakuru 50, Mysuru 49, and Dakshina Kannada 47 followed by others.
The day saw 869 patients getting discharged after recovery. The recoveries have reached 9,42,178.
A total of 2,01,93,326 samples have been tested so far, out of which 91,884 were tested on Friday, including 6,209 rapid antigen tests.