COVID Spreading To Districts In Karnataka

Bengaluru: After reporting a decline in Covid-19 cases, Karnataka once again recorded a spike in new cases with 6257 people testing positive Tuesday. While Bengaluru maintained a declining trend with 1610 cases, the virus seems to be spreading to other districts like Ballari (736 cases), Belagavi (575) Dharwada (276), Dakshina Kannada (234) and Mysuru (238).

With today’s numbers, active cases are 79606 and total caseload 1,88,611. The state also recorded 86 Covid-related deaths taking the toll to 3398.

Despite cases going up, the silver lining is that the number of discharges over the past 10 days has increased to 88% compared to those cured as on July 31. The number of new Covid cases in the same period showed a 44% spike.

The interpretation of these figures indicates that though there was an alarming surge in new cases in July, the state is now plateauing and witnessing a more sustained daily growth, while the number of recoveries has surged. Compared to 40% as of July 31, the overall recovery rate in the state as on August 9 stands at 53%.

Health experts attribute two reasons to this: the cycle of recoveries has kicked in and many people who had contracted the infection in late June and early July are now being discharged.

Secondly, Karnataka has modified its discharge policy — people in the hospital can be sent home if they show no symptoms for three consecutive days after being admitted. This has resulted in the discharge numbers showing a healthy figure. Earlier, a patient had to spend between 10 and 14 days in the hospital. Experts feel that as recoveries increase, the growth rate of recoveries too will plateau till active cases come down. Also, the recovery rate will reflect whether the curve flattens and bends. The focus of the state is to do more tests and increase detection of cases.

Bengaluru records health COVID recovery rate