Covid-19: Karnataka hits new peak; 65,000 cases in a week

The state's Covid-19 numbers hit a new peak over the last one week, with 65,185 cases being registered over the last seven days, out of which 10,145 were reported on Sunday.

The state’s weekly totals have been steadily increasing since the start of September. In the previous seven-day period, for example, only 60,192 Covid-19 cases were registered. Officials told DH that the surge in cases was due to increased testing. On September 28, the state abruptly scaled up its testing regimen by 32.8%. Over the last few days, the number of daily tests have consistently been over 84,000.

The highest concentration of Sunday's cases were 4,340 cases in Bengaluru Urban, which amounts to 43% of the day's cases. The rest of the day's high caseload were strewn across the state’s 29 remaining districts, with the next highest numbers being in Mysuru (1,037), followed by Hassan with 307, Ballari 304 and Dakshina Kannada 293.

There were also 67 new deaths reported, the majority of which (22) had transpired in Bengaluru Urban. The next highest numbers were 12 in Mysuru and five in Koppal.

The youngest fatality was a 17-year-old boy from Bengaluru with symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) and breathlessness. He died on September 17 in a private hospital on the same day that he was identified as Covid-19 positive. The oldest fatality was a 93-year-old man in Tumakuru, who succumbed to the virus on September 30, 11 days after being diagnosed with the disease. He had breathlessness and was a diabetes patient.

The problem of abrupt deaths due to delay in clinical intervention continues to dog the state. On Sunday, 11 of the deaths disclosed had died on the same day of admittance.

The state also discharged 7,287 Covid-19 patients on Sunday, out of which 36.9% (2,681 cases) were in Bengaluru Urban.

Testing up in Bengaluru

In Bengaluru too, testing numbers have increased since September 28. In a previous seven-day period, an average of 24,000 tests were being conducted per day. However, the last six days have seen the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) conducting an average of 33,000 tests per day.

The number of new cases are now largely hitting 4,000 per day. Experts say that these numbers will likely rise if testing numbers are increased further.

The concentration of new cases in Bengaluru were highest in Yelahanka and West Zone (both of which reported a 16% share).

According to the BBMP, the city's positivity rate is 13.76%. It (positivity rate) in the state capital has been averaging around this for the last three weeks.