BENGALURU: Bengaluru continues to see a virus surge with 1,373 Covid-19 cases recorded on Thursday with no contact or travel history. Overall, the state too reported a record a high number of cases at 2,228, taking the count to 31,105. There were 17 deaths reported, taking the toll to 486.
Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, at a press meet, said contact tracing and tracking has to be improved in Bengaluru and admitted that it has not been at 100 per cent. “The same people who have been doing contact tracing for the last four months are continuing to work and are fatigued. We have decided to change our model to local, booth-level contact tracing,” he said.
However, he pointed out that the state’s fatality rate is still low at 1.49% and Bengaluru’s at 1.28%. All 17 deaths in the state were either SARI or ILI cases, with most of them having fever, cough and breathlessness. Dakshina Kannada saw the second highest number of 167 patients, followed by Kalaburagi with 85, Dharwad with 75, Mysuru with 52 and Ballari with 41.
Of the one lakh antigen test kits the state is procuring, 30,000 to 40,000 will be used for testing in Bengaluru. “Of the 819 beds in government medical colleges, 749 are filled. In 16 government hospitals, 501 of 558 beds are filled. In 11 private medical colleges, 1,960 of 1,990 beds are filled. In private hospitals, 215 of 250 beds are filled and they are supposed to allot 2,750 beds,” Sudhakar said.
There are 2,088 beds available at Covid Care Centres (CCC) of which 552 are in Haj Bhavan, 220 in Ravishankar Hospital, 866 in GKVK hostel, 250 in Government Ayurveda College and 200 in Medsol Hospital. Upcoming CCCs will have 12,098 beds.