BENGALURU: It was a double whammy for Karnataka on Friday as it recorded the highest single-day spike of 69 Covid positive cases and also breached the thousand mark, taking the total to 1,056 cases.
Bengaluru Urban too reached its own dubious landmark with the number of Covid positive patients from the city crossing 200. With 13 more patients positive, the tally now stands at 202.
A 52-year-old resident of Chitguppa town in Bidar, with a travel history to Hyderabad and suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI), died on May 12 at a designated hospital in Bidar, but his samples tested positive on Friday. With this, the toll in the state stood at 36.
A silver lining is that the total number of discharged cases went up to 480. In Mysuru district, all the 90 Covid-19 positive patients have been discharged without a single mortality. Dakshina Kannada district recorded the highest number of 15 positive cases, while Udupi recorded five. Of these, 14 from Dakshina Kannada and all the five from Udupi had a travel history to Dubai. One other case in Dakshina Kannada was that of a person with SARI symptoms. Mandya recorded 13 cases and all these patients had travelled to Mumbai.
No community transmission yet, says minister
Similarly, all the three patients from Hassan and one each from Shivamogga, Kalaburgi and Bidar had gone to Mumbai. Of the 13 cases in Bengaluru Urban, 11 were contacts of Patient 653, while two were contacts of Patient 911, whose contact tracing is still on. Bidar recorded four new cases. Two patients from Chitradurga and one from Kolar had a travel history to Chennai. This apart, Kalaburagi district reported two cases, while Bagalkot one. Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, however, said that Karnataka has still not entered the community transmission stage.
Appraisal of preparedness
Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary, Healthy and Family Welfare Department, on Friday issued a circular for a rapid appraisal of districtlevel preparedness and performance of health systems in handling Covid-19 cases. The circular stated that Dr Pradeep BS from Nimhans and his team will implement, coordinate and compile quick findings of appraisals from districts. The report from the team will have findings on the status of district preparedness, recommendations for strengthening Covid control activities at the district level and indicators for monitoring the district level disease control activities.