With Bengaluru reporting 1,525 out of 2,627 cases and 45 of 71 deaths in Karnataka on Sunday, members of the State’s COVID-19 expert and technical advisory committees recommended a minimum three-week lockdown.
Andhra Pradesh witnessed 19 new deaths and 1,933 new cases, taking the toll to 328 and the tally to 29,168.
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With the discharge of over 1,019 patients in 24 hours, 15,412 patients had recovered, and active cases stood at 13,428. Of the total cases, 26,336 patients were locals while 2,403 were people from other States and 429 foreign returnees.
New deaths were reported from Kurnool (4), Srikakulam (4), Krishna (3), Visakhapatnam (3), Chittoor (2), Anantapur (1), Nellore (1) and West Godavari (1). Among new cases, 1,914 were locals and 18 were from other States and one a foreign returnee. East Godavari reported 268 new local cases, Kurnool 237 and Krishna 206. They were followed by Chittoor (159), Guntur (152), Srikakulam (145), Vizianagaram (138), Prakasam (134), Anantapur (129), Nellore (124), Kadapa (94), West Godavari (79) and Visakhapatnam (49).
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The number of cases in Telangana touched 34,671 as 1,269 samples tested positive on Sunday. On the same day, eight more patients died, taking the toll to 356.
The State Health department said there were 11,883 active cases, 22,482 were discharged and 356 died till July 12. However, adding the numbers totalled 34,721 while total cases were mentioned as 34,671.
The 1,269 new cases included 800 from Greater Hyderabad, 132 from Rangareddy and 94 from Medchal.
State-wise tracker for coronavirus cases, deaths and testing rates
Kerala’s COVID-19 burden continued to rise with increase in local transmission. For the third consecutive day on Sunday, community-acquired cases exceeded imported ones. The State reported 435 new cases, of which, 215 were imported cases of people with travel, while cases of local transmission stood at 218.
In Thiruvananthapuram, 31 out of 40 new cases were through local transmission, as were 35 of 57 cases in Alappuzha, 41 out of the 50 cases in Ernakulam, 41 out of 56 cases in Kasaragod and 24 out of 39 cases in Pathanamthitta. Ten health-care workers and two paramilitary force personnel contracted the disease through local transmission.
Local transmission raised the patient load. Thiruvananthapuram with 548 patients had the highest active cases, followed by Malappuram, 521, Alappuzha, 372, Kannur, 334, Ernakulam, 329, and Palakkad, 328.
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Two more deaths were recorded on Sunday, raising the tally to 31. Two persons who died on July 5 and July 7 in Thrissur and Alappuzha were found to have tested positive.
In Karnataka with 2,627 new cases, the total touched 38,843. As many as 274 of the total 684 deaths in the State were from Bengaluru.
Dr. V. Ravi, Head of Neuro Virology at NIMHANS, who is on the State’s COVID-19 expert committee said: “Scientifically, a minimum three-week lockdown is essential to cut down the level of transmission.”
Prof. Giridhara K Babu, member of Karnataka’s COVID-19 technical advisory committee was also of the view that a three-week lockdown was required for any “meaningful” effect. This would be an opportunity for the BBMP to gear up and prepare for the worst, he said.
(With inputs from Vijayawada, Hyderabad, and Thiruvananthapuram bureaus )