Surge in Covid cases, deaths in Karnataka

Bengaluru: Karnataka Tuesday recorded a fresh spike in both the number of Covid-19 cases and a number of coronavirus deaths for a single day. The state reported 6259 new cases that included Opposition leader Siddaramaiah who got himself admitted to Manipal Hospital joining Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa who is already undergoing treatment for Covid-19 in the same hospital.

The total number of cases as on Tuesday was 1,45,830 and 110 deaths were reported taking the total to 2704.

Bengaluru reported 2035 cases with 30 deaths, followed by Mysuru with 662 and 9 deaths.

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Though the state added more than a lakh Covid cases to its tally in the past four weeks alone, Karnataka reported fewer cases than Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh among states with more than a lakh cases in July. Delhi was the only state among the top five that reported fewer cases than Karnataka.

While Karnataka had 3,512 new cases per day on an average, Delhi had less than this. The other three states had a daily average of more than 4,000 with Maharashtra reporting the most cases every day.

Meanwhile, after starting fresh door-to-door health surveys in Bengaluru, the state has decided to test vulnerable groups of citizens for Covid-19 across Karnataka. The effort will focus on the elderly, pregnant women, people with comorbidity and those with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) and influenza-like illness (ILI). Rapid antigen testing kits will be used.

Karnataka has 48.3 lakh households with at least one member aged above 60, 4.1 lakh pregnant and lactating women and 1.5 lakh households with comorbidity, according to the data from the state Covid-19 war room.

The testing plan is to check the spread of Covid. “We have drawn up a booth-level action plan. Each booth has 200 to 250 houses. Once a survey is conducted, booth workers will have the list of vulnerable citizens, who will be then tested with antigen kits,” said a BBMP health officer who was quoted in the media.

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