Karnataka on Friday reported 5,356 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of cases to 7,93,907. With this, the State’s daily test positivity rate (TPR) reduced to 4.94%, which is a good indication. However, the cumulative TPR stood at 11.07%.
TPR, which is a vital marker in assessing the spread of an outbreak, is the percentage of people found to be infected by the virus from among those being tested. While the cumulative positivity rate takes into account all the people tested so far, the daily rate is based on those tested on a particular day.
According to epidemiologists, a high positivity rate indicates that testing is relatively limited to people with high suspicion of COVID-19 and may miss new chains of transmission in the community. The World Health Organisation recommends that the daily positivity rate should be below 5% for at least two weeks before public health measures are relaxed.
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Meanwhile, the State reported 51 new deaths, taking the toll to 10,821. This is apart from 19 deaths of COVID-19 patients due to other reasons. The State’s case fatality rate (CFR) touched 0.95% on Friday.
As many as 8,749 persons were discharged on Friday, taking the total number of recoveries to 69,35,584. Of the 89,483 active cases, 936 patients were being monitored in the ICU.
Bengaluru Urban reported 2,688 cases, taking its tally to 3,21,054, and 21deaths.
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