Karnataka reports biggest single-day spike of 14,859 Covid-19 cases

Karnataka recorded yet another highest single-day spike on Friday with 14,859 Covid-19 positive cases. Of these, 9,917 were from Bengaluru Urban alone. The state had previously reported its biggest single day spike of 14,738 cases on Thursday.

The number of active cases in the state stood at 1,07,315 with 577 patients in intensive care units. As many as 78 Covid-19 deaths were reported in the state on Friday, taking the total number of deaths to 13,190. Bengaluru Urban accounted for 57 deaths.

Read | 95% of Covid-19 cases require no treatment in second wave, says Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar

“As many as 1,800 beds will be made available for Covid treatment in KIMS and BMCRI. KIMS will reserve 500 beds within two or three weeks. Private medical colleges are arranging 5,000 beds shortly,” said Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar. He was speaking to the media after inspecting BMCRI, KIMS and St John’s hospitals.

He held a meeting with the administration of St John’s hospital and instructed them to make alternative arrangement in a nearby hotel for mild symptomatic patients.

“6,000 beds are available in Bengaluru including those in hospitals and Covid Care Centres of which 3,869 been occupied. Another 2,131 are still available for patients. The number of beds will be increased further in the coming days,” said the minister.

The positivity rate for the day stood at 11.11%, while the case fatality rate was 0.52%. Around 1.33 lakh tests were conducted on Thursday including 1.2 lakh RT-PCR tests.

The day also saw 4,031 patients getting discharged after recovery. Cumulatively, 11,24,509 Covid-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 10,03,985 discharges. Kalaburagi reported 488 cases, Tumakuru 432, Mysuru 415, and Bengaluru Rural 358.

Meanwhile, the vaccination drive continued with 1,89,238 people taking the shot on Friday. Since the start of the drive, 69,08,663 people have received the vaccine.