After over eight months, COVID-19 cases in Karnataka are on the rise again. While active cases have crossed the 1,000 mark, deaths shot up to 12 in March. The weekly test positivity rate has touched 2.84%, which is higher than the national average of 2.03%.
While doctors said the rising cases during election season is a matter of concern, the State Health Department is closely monitoring the trend. The situation is not alarming as of now as hospitalisations, which were on the rise, have reduced in the last one week, said officials. As of Saturday, the State recorded 55 hospitalisations.
A total of 15 deaths have been reported since January of which five are from Bengaluru Urban. Over half of the total active cases, which stood at 1,259 on Saturday, are from Bengaluru. Karnataka has the fourth highest active cases in the country after Kerala, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had on March 16 written to the State to examine the situation at the micro level (district and sub-districts) and maintain focus on the implementation of necessary measures for prompt and effective management.
Wave unlikely
However, COVID-19 experts said this surge was not likely to result in a wave. V. Ravi, nodal officer for genomic confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 in Karnataka and head of Research and Development at TATA Medical and Diagnostics Ltd., said currently the XBB 1.16, a mutant strain of Omicron that can evade immunity, is the dominant strain in the country. This surge in Karnataka is also driven by XBB1.16, he said.
“Although this variant is highly transmissible, it can only result in a mild surge that requires people to exercise COVID-19-appropriate behaviour, especially in public places. As the virus mutates and its fitness improves, it will cause such fresh surges. However, the infection will be mild because of hybrid immunity in the community,” Dr. Ravi said.
Advising that symptomatic people should isolate themselves for four to five days, he said people should mask up to check the spread of the infection.
Tracking hospitalisation
State Health Commissioner Randeep D., however, said, they were tracking the trend closely and hospitalisations and the numbers had not proportionately increased. “A large proportion of the infected still are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic,” he said.
Following the State’s Technical Advisory Committee’s recommendation, the Health Department had in mid-March asked the BBMP to conduct a clinical audit of the hospitalised patients and a death audit of all the three fatalities reported since January till then. The clinical audit has shown that COVID-19 was an incidental finding in all the three deaths, the commissioner said.
“We are also investigating if there is any coinfection of H3N2 Influenza and COVID-19 in the hospitalised patients. This is because both COVID and H3N2 share similar respiratory symptoms,” the commissioner added.
