BENGALURU: From a high of over 8,000 to 10,000 Covid cases daily in August, September and until mid-October, the virus appears to be slowing down, at least for now, in Karnataka.
In a sign of relief to citizens, government and overburdened health infrastructure, Karnataka reported 3,130 cases on Monday, taking its tally up to 8,05,947. The positivity rate has been steadily declining from over 12 per cent in September to 10.82 per cent as of October 26.
Munish Moudgil, in charge of state Covid war room, said, “It is because of high testing that lower positivity rate and lower new daily cases happen and not in spite of high testing. The lesson we have learnt is that high daily testing is the way to beat Covid, particularly RT-PCR, which holds the key to identify, control and reduce Covid. Even when the positivity rate and new daily cases fall, we should continue
with high daily testing. This will prevent the second wave.”
Recovery rate at an all-time high
Another reassuring fact is that the recovery rate is at an alltime high with 8,715 people recovering, taking the figure to 89.28 per cent. Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said, “With 8,715 recoveries and 3,130 cases, Karnataka witnessed more recoveries than positive cases for the 12th consecutive day.
Let’s continue our fight against Covid, by wearing masks, ensuring hand hygiene and maintaining physical distance.” October 22 saw the highest number of discharges at 13,550. With higher recoveries and lesser number of fresh cases, the number of active cases which crossed 1 lakh in September has now declined to 75,423. Yet another sign of comfort is the declining mortality rate from 2 per cent on July 26 to 1.35% on October 26.
For the past 16 days, the state has been reporting less than 100 deaths per day and on Monday, fatalities were at 42. Bengaluru which was clocking 4,000 to 5,000 cases daily has seen a considerable dip. On Monday, it reported only 1,603 cases. As per an analysis by Jeevan Raksha, test positivity rate (TPR) has reduced from 14.5% on September 19 to 12.6% on October 24 in Bengaluru.
“Looks like Bengaluru Urban is getting its act together. Active cases have dropped from 65,000 to 51,000, TPR is down from 14% to 12.6%, average daily number of cases has dropped, number of deaths is relatively lower in October until 25 when compared with September. Hope the good performance is sustained at least for next 8-12 weeks,” said Sanjeev Mysore, convener of Jeevan Raksha. Of the 75,423 active cases in the state, 942 are in in ICU. However, with a syndromic approach adopted by the Critical Care Support Team that monitors these cases, Covid mortality is decreasing in the state.