BENGALURU: Karnataka recorded 135 new positive cases on Wednesday, bringing the total tally of cases to 2,418. The state also recorded three deaths in the districts of Yadgir, Bidar and Vijayapura, taking the death count to 47, besides two non-Covid cases. The day saw 17 discharges, putting the total number of discharges at 781.
In Yadgir, Patient 2301, a 69-year-old woman returnee from Maharashtra, was brought dead to the designated hospital on May 20, and the swabs were collected later. Test results showed the patient tested positive. In Bidar, Patient 1712, a 40-year-old male, was diagnosed with SARI, complaints of fever, cough, breathlessness and was a known case of diabetes mellitus. He died on Wednesday. In Vijayapura district, Patient 2011, an 82-year-old male, was admitted to hospital with complaints of fever, cough, chest pain and breathlessness, and died on May 26.
However, Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar revealed that ICMR has approved 60 laboratories for testing in the state. “In February, we had one testing centre, the National Institute of Virology, Bengaluru. By the end of March, we added six, in April-end, we had 17, and now we have reached 60.” On Wednesday, the state conducted 12,694 tests -- the highest numbr so far. “In March, we had tested 2,308 samples, and and in April, we tested 55,034 samples, and so far in May, we have done 1,79,397 tests, which is a good number.” Among the 135 positive cases recorded on Wednesday, 118 have travel history — 116 are inter-state travellers and two are international travellers —while the remaining patients are contacts of earlier patients.
The highest number of cases was from Kalaburagi district, which recorded 28 positive cases, followed by 16 cases from Yadgir and 15 cases from Hassan. All the patients had returned from Maharashtra. Bidar came next with 13 cases, with 11 returnees from Maharashtra, while one was a contact of a patient. In Dakshina Kannada, 11 cases had returned from Maharashtra. Udupi recorded 9 cases, all with travel history to Maharashtra. Six cases were from Bengaluru Urban — two with travel history to Nepal and UAE, two others had returned from Tamil Nadu, one from Maharashtra and the last was a contact of previous patient. Davanagere’s six cases were contacts of patients.
Raichur recorded five cases, while Chikkaballapura logged four cases who had returned from Maharashtra. Belgavi also with four cases — two cases returned from Maharashtra, one from Kerala and the other from Delhi. Three cases from Chikkamagaluru and Vijayapura also returned from Maharashtra. Bengaluru Rural had two cases, who were contacts of previous patients.