BENGALURU: Covid-19 cases in Karnataka crossed the 2,000-mark and touched 2,136, including 1,584 in Bengaluru, while Covid clusters bulged to 21 in the state capital on Wednesday. Covid Technical Advisory Committee head Dr MK Sudarshan told TNIE that the rise in cases is because of variants of Omicron which are more infective, and also attributed it to increased testing and non-compliance of Covid protocol by the public.
However, since these variants of Omicron are less pathogenic, there are fewer deaths and low hospitalisation, Dr Sudarshan said, reiterating that this was still not the fourth wave as the World Health Organisation is yet to notify a new Variant of Concern (VoC).
Sources in the health department said that cloudy weather with low temperatures, which is congenial for transmission of the virus, is another reason for the rise in caseload. Since the vaccination coverage has improved now, deaths and hospitalisation have reduced too, they added.
Recently, genome sequencing reports of 348 RT-PCR samples (whose CT levels were less than 25) sent from July 22-31 indicated the presence of Omicron and its sub-lineages BA2 (174 samples), BA1.1.529 (85 samples), BA5 (79 samples), BA4 (8 samples), BA3 (2 samples).