With a huge spurt in the number of positive cases day after day, all districts in the State except Chamarajanagar and Ramanagaram now have COVID-19 cases.
Raichur, Koppal, and Chikkamagaluru that remained COVID-19 free till last week, have now started reporting cases. While Raichur and Koppal reported seven and three cases, respectively, Monday onwards, Chikkamagaluru entered the list of affected districts on Tuesday with five cases.
12th position
Suresh Kumar, Primary and Secondary Education Minister who is the COVID-19 spokesperson, attributed the spurt in numbers to inter-State travel history. Despite the spurt, Karnataka stands at 12th position in terms of positive cases, he said.
Admitting that none of those who are coming from other States had been tested in the States from where they were coming, the Minister said: “The Chief Minister on Monday announced the State’s decision to restrict travellers from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu to Karnataka till the situation improves there. It might help us in controlling the spread.”
When pointed out that a large number of trucks and other goods transport vehicles enter Karnataka transporting vegetables, fruits and other commodities from these States, the Minister said: “We are screening all drivers of trucks coming from these States at check-posts before allowing them. Besides, we are also sanitising the trucks at check-posts. We followed a similar approach in Chamarajanagar and it helped us to a large extent.”
From May 16 till date, five trains have pulled into the State and 1,527 people have landed in the city. All of them have been screened and quarantined here. Of these, two have been symptomatic so far, he said.
While those coming from other countries are tested twice (once after they land and one at the end of the quarantine period), those coming from other States are being tested once at the end of their quarantine period, he said.
Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said all asymptomatic inter-State returnees from States with high positivity and high numbers will be tested before they are released from quarantine.
Testing capacity
The State’s testing capacity has increased with 46 labs, including 28 government labs, approved by the ICMR. “We are now on an average testing of around 8,000 samples a day. Our target is to cross 10,000 samples per day by May 30,” he said.
Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar said the State has tested 1.56 lakh samples as on Tuesday.
