DH Radio | The Lead: The state of Covid-19 pandemic in Bengaluru and Karnataka

In this episode of The Lead from DH Radio, Bengaluru and Karnataka's Covid-19 case numbers are rising every day, we figure out how the city and state are coping with the pandemic and try to understand how authorities are attempting to tackle it.

Ahmed Shariff: It's been months now and the pandemic persists. To give us more information about the state of the pandemic in Karnataka, we have our correspondent Suraksha P. Welcome to DH radio, Suraksha.

Suraksha P: Hi.

Ahmed: My first question to you is what is the current state of the pandemic in Bengaluru and Karnataka?

Suraksha: Karnataka on Wednesday reported 6,997 new Covid-19 cases and 38 fatalities, taking the total case tally to 5,40,847 and the death toll to 8,266. Out of 6,997 fresh cases reported on Wednesday, 3,547 were from Bengaluru Urban alone. Twenty three out of 38 deaths reported were from Bengaluru Urban. Bengaluru Urban now has so far reported 2,04,275 infections.

One model which makes one-week predictions shows that the state’s curve is ascending. It predicts the city will have 2.23 lakh total cases by September 28, an increase of 25,645 cases since September 21.

Scientists who have been conducting a predictive analysis of the Covid-19 outbreak have cautioned that the latest mathematical analysis of the outbreak predicts that 50% of the population is set to get infected by January 2021.

Ahmed: Can you shed some more light on the under-reporting of cases in the state?

Suraksha: Back-to-back strikes, first by medical officers in Mysuru and then across the state by 4,968 doctors led to an information black hole in the state. Many districts reported zero recoveries or cases in two digits. Two districts reported zero and one case. The state had to subsequently reconcile this data. We would see in successive bulletins for days to come at least in Mysuru, there would be a little asterisk that said, "Data reconciled."

The information on Covid-19 caseload released by the Karnataka government is often as much as 72 hours old. this is being done to avoid creating panic among people. we only update the bulletin from 7 am to 3 pm. Any cases after that are pushed forward. The central government has granted states a disparity leeway of between 10,000 and 15,000 cases when it comes to publishing daily figures. If the disparity is more than this, it indicates a problem.

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