KARWAR: The number of Covid-19 cases in the district has shot up by 72 since December 23, 2020.
The people of Uttara Kannada district were happy on seeing a drop in the number of cases as the cases reported were as low as five till mid-December and the hospital ICUs were almost vacant.
However, the trend reversed at the end of the year with more number of cases being detected every day.
The number of positive cases have increased with 8-10 cases being reported every day since December 23, barring December 28, when the number of positive cases reported was just two.
Altogether 17 fresh cases were reported on January 1, 2021, followed by 11 positive cases on December 24 and 10 cases on December 25 and 26.
“The surge could have been caused due to public gatherings on the occasion of Christmas and New Year,” said Dr Gajanan Nayak, Dean, Karwar Institute of Medical Sciences (KrIMS).
Dr Naik stated that the number of cases was likely to decrease and the situation will be normal again in the days to come. KrIMS has also increased the number of tests conducted, considering the re-opening of schools and colleges.
“We have increased the number of tests to 1,500 every day. Till January 2, 2021, we have tested 1.52 lakh people for Covid-19,” Naik said, adding that this was the highest among tier-two cities in the state.
As on December 24, KrIMS has conducted 1.38 lakh RT-PCR tests, of which 7,370 people tested positive and 1,313 are negative.
In all, 3,527 people were tested through TrueNat and 512 samples have come out positive and 2,015 are negative.