BENGALURU: Between January 1 and January 28, Omicron has been the dominant Covid-19 variant in Karnataka, going by genome sequencing data shared by Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar. Of 1,555 samples found to have variants of concern, 67.5% or 1,049 samples were found to be Omicron, and only 26% or 404 samples were of Delta and its sub-lineages. A mere 6.6% or 102 samples were of other variants such as ETA, Beta, Kappa etc.
From the beginning of the pandemic till December 2021, Delta and its sub-lineages had dominated the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Karnataka, amounting to 90.7% or 4,027 of the 4,441 samples with variants of concern. Variants such as ETA, Beta, Kappa, contributed to 4.1% or 184 of the samples, and Omicron was reported in 66 samples.
High-level meet today
A high-level meeting chaired by CM Basavaraj Bommai to decide on Covid-related restrictions and school reopening will be held on Saturday. Members of the Technical Advisory Committee, health department officials and ministers will attend the meeting.
Record 71K recoveries
There were 50 deaths, which took the death toll to 38,804 in the state, but the mortality rate remained at 1.04 per cent. “Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said we must observe Covid-19 patients in home isolation. So far, 95 per cent of patients are at home. Deaths are occurring among those who are older and have comorbidities. We do a death audit regularly,” he said.
On the second consecutive day, the state breached the discharge record with 71,092 discharges, beating Thursday’s high of 67,236, which pushed active cases below the 3-lakh mark, to 2,88,767. The recovery rate improved to 91.20 per cent. Bengaluru contributed 15,199 cases on January 28.
Here too, active cases reduced from over 1.8 lakh to 1,60,178. Sudhakar said that as per new guidelines for home testing of Covid-19, if the test is positive, one must update status on https://cvstatus.icmr. gov.in. If the test is negative, but the person has Covid-19 symptoms, they must go in for an RT -PCR test.
If the repeat test is negative and there are no symptoms, no further action is required. “New guidelines have been issued for disposal of Rapid Antigen and other home test kits. Do not dispose of used kits with domestic wet/dry waste as it is contagious, put it in a bio hazard bag and hand it over separately,” Sudhakar added