BENGALURU: Year 2022 opened on a grim note with the state reporting 1,033 fresh Covid cases on Saturday, pushing the number of active cases to well over the 9,000-mark.In a strong indicator of the resurgence of Covid cases and coming of a third wave, Karnataka recorded 1,000-plus cases for the first time since September 17, 2021, when the state saw 1,003 cases.
According to the health department data, after October 6 — when the state saw 523 cases — Karnataka witnessed a 500-plus additions on December 29 with 566 cases. Just three days later, fresh cases have jumped almost two-fold, pointing to an increasingly rapid spread of the Covid infection, with many likely to be the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, the Omicron tally across the state is still small with only 66 positive cases found among the 30,08,370 who have tested positive so far through the pandemic.
The number of active cases, however, jumped from 8,712 on Friday to 9,386 on Saturday, recording a 7.73 per cent rise.Bengaluru, which has been driving the surge, added 810 of the state’s 1,033 cases. Active cases in the city jumped from 5,890 cases on December 25 to 7,876 on Saturday, recording a rise of 8.09 per cent. With the upward spiral in active cases, the state’s recovery rate has been sliding over the past few days.
It had reached a peak of 98.50 per cent on November 30, which has now slid to 98.41 per cent and is likely to fall further if high number of cases are to be added. Bengaluru’s recovery rate has done even worse, falling to 98.07 per cent from a high of 98.31 per cent on November 30.
Though the situation is clearly worsening, a possible lockdown again seems a distant reality with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai specifying that it could be considered if the state’s weekly test positivity rate crossed over 5 per cent.