JOIN USKarnataka reports over 5,000 new Covid-19 cases, 32 deaths
Karnataka for the first time this year logged nearly 5,000 cases on Friday with the state reporting 4,991 cases. The bulk of these cases were from Bengaluru, pushing the active caseload to 34,219 in the state, while six deaths took the toll to 12,591. This led the government to issue a slew of restrictions on Friday which were recommendations made by the state Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
Earlier rejected, they have now been accepted by the Government.
The positivity rate for the day shot up to 4.19% from 3.65% on Thursday.
Bengaluru alone accounted for 3,509 cases and five deaths. The state capital now has 24,600 active cases which is 72% of the active case load in the state. The other fatality was reported from Kalaburagi. The total caseload is now 10,06,229. The day also saw 1,631 patients getting discharged after recovery taking the total number of recoveries to 9,59,400.
As many as 269 patients are in Intensive Care Units. Other than Bengaluru, Mysuru reported 174 cases, Tumakuru 142, Bidar 126, and Dakshina Kannada and Kalaburagi 105 each.
A total of over 2,16,45,891 crore samples have been tested so far, out of which 1,18,933 were done on Friday alone.
Epidemiologist Dr Giridhar Babu, member of TAC, in the backdrop of the spike in cases and the restrictions imposed by the government on Friday told reporters here, "After several rounds of deliberation, we had made these recommendations to the government earlier. After extensive examination by the state government, the new restrictions have been imposed. The main aim of these restrictions are to contain super-spreader events in closed spaces."
"There is evidence that infection is spreading more in such events. By imposing restrictions for two weeks, the government wants to reduce the number of cases. People should help the government in doing this. We should be successful in bringing down the cases. This is an appeal from the Technical Advisory Committee," he added.
Vaccination
Even as the state grapples with a rapid surge in cases, more than one lakh people were vaccinated on Friday. Out of 1,26,270 vaccinated, 68,100 were between 45 and 60 years of age. The next highest vaccinated numbers were among the elderly. As many as 51,373 above the age of 60 were vaccinated.
This took the cumulative vaccinated to 40,73,206 in the state.