BENGALURU: For those wondering why the curfew restrictions need to be taken seriously — call it ‘lockdown’ if you want — consider this: On Friday, with Karnataka recording a maddening addition of 48,296 fresh Covid-19 cases to its tally, the total number of active cases in Bengaluru alone has crossed the individual figures of the entire states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. If it is any consolation, Kerala is the only other southern state whose active cases — currently under treatment — are more than Bengaluru’s.
Bengaluru itself added a whopping 26,756 cases on Friday. While the number of active cases in Bengaluru stands at a massive 2,59,058, Andhra Pradesh has 1,22,980; Tamil Nadu, 1,15,128; and Telangana, 77,727 cases. The total number of active cases in the whole of Karnataka is 3,82,690, while Kerala’s active cases add up to 3,03,732.To understand how intensely the second wave is raging in Karnataka, the highest single-day addition in the first wave was 10,974 on October 7, 2020, while Friday’s addition of 48,296 is so far the highest day’s addition.
According to health officials, the detection of cases has gone up because of the increased testing. But if one closely sees the number of tests conducted on October 7 last year, when the first wave’s highest additions were recorded, and compare them with the number of tests reported in Friday health bulletin, it is clear that the cases are spiraling in the state not just because of increased testing, but because of a more intense spread of infection.
The Health Department data says that on October 7 last year, 1,04,348 tests were conducted to detect a single-day addition of 10,974 cases. On Friday, 1,89,793 tests revealed an addition of 48,296 cases. This is an 81 per cent increase in the number of tests, but the comparative increase in the single-day addition is a whopping 340 per cent!
With the worsening situation in Bengaluru, and Karnataka in general, the state’s recovery rate has fallen to 73.85 per cent from Thursday’s 75.26 per cent. The recovery rate was a robust 98.06 per cent on January 30, when the first wave was on the wane. Correspondingly, the state’s positivity rate has been rising since April 4, when it was 4.63 per cent. On Friday, the state’s positivity rate was at 5.95 per cent, up from 5.80 per cent on Thursday.
The mortality rate, however, has been falling and is now 1.01 per cent — an indication that the deaths, compared to the Covid-19 tally — have been just a fraction. It was 1.03 per cent on Thursday.Bengaluru’s Covid-19 tally now stands at 7,56,740 cases recorded since the pandemic reached the state on March 8 last year. It was 7,29,984 on Thursday.