The jury is still out on whether the dip in COVID-19 cases is the impact of the lockdown or reduced testing. But, figures shared by the government indicate a let up in the number of new cases Bengaluru has been reporting since the last few days. Meanwhile, districts are showing a hike.
A far cry from accounting for over half the total number of cases in the State, there has been a significant drop in the city’s numbers. On Thursday, Bengaluru Urban reported 9,409 new cases and 289 deaths, while the State reported 28,869 new cases.
According to the May 19 Health Department bulletin, of the 34,281 new cases, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 11,772. The day before, the city reported 8,676 new cases of the 30,309 in Karnataka. Through the course of the ongoing lockdown, the numbers have been within 17,000. Prior to that, the city was regularly reporting in excess of 20,000 cases a day.
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The State government imposed what was termed as a “stricter lockdown” for 14 days, beginning May 10, after partial lockdown failed to put break on the rapid march of new infections. Though the State on the whole did see a gradual reduction in cases, other districts started seeing an increase, which was attributed to the migration of people from the city to their hometowns. This too has contributed to the decrease in cases in the city, experts say.
M.K. Sudarshan, chairman of the State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), said the decrease in cases is mainly due to the lockdown. “Other factors like targeted testing also helped. Though it looks like testing has reduced, what is being done is focussed and targeted testing, and it is yielding good results. Even inter-State travel has decreased, bringing down the numbers,” he said. He agreed that the surge in districts was due to the migration of people from the city to their hometowns.
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Other districts, especially ones that see movement from Bengaluru, have been bearing the brunt of a steady rise in infections since last month. Tumakuru, which reported 1,796 new cases on Thursday too, still has close to 26,000 active cases. Mysuru had 1,879 new cases, while Ballari had 1,109 new cases. During the second wave, other districts such as Bengaluru Rural, Chickballapur, Mandya, Kalaburagi, Dakshina Kannada, and Hassan have also seen substantial rise in cases.
In February, before the second wave made an entry, most districts were reporting new cases in single digits, and had active cases in double digits. Experts and the medical fraternity had pointed out that unhindered movement between places and disregard for COVID-19 appropriate behaviour were the main reasons for the spread of infections in the districts too.
With all eyes now on whether the lockdown will be extended, experts are now batting for graded unlock, like that of June 2020. “It is too early to say the second wave is plateauing. We have to wait for unlock and then another 15 days to see what happens, A graded unlock is what is needed,” one of the TAC members said.