Karnataka crossed another milestone in its pandemic-control measures with COVID-19 tests breaching the two crore mark on Wednesday. With 86,648 new samples tested in the last 24 hours, the total number of tests touched 2,00,08,072 on Wednesday.
The State had tested over one crore samples from March last year, when the pandemic hit Karnataka, to November 21, 2020. With this, Karnataka is the third State in the country — after Uttar Pradesh and Bihar — that has tested over two crore samples.
With this, the cumulative test positivity rate touched 4.81% on Wednesday. From an average 80 tests a day in March 2020, the State till January 2021 tested an average of over one lakh samples a day. Testing was ramped up from May onwards. From a total of 2,310 tests in March, the State conducted nearly 16 lakh tests in August. This further went up to nearly 20 lakh tests in September. The tests per million went up from 44,099 on September 1 to 72,541 on September 30. On October 2, the State’s tests breached the 50 lakh mark, touching 50,89,730 and breached the one crore mark on November 21.
RT-PCR tests
The State’s dependence on rapid antigen tests (RAT) reduced considerably with 79.4% of the total 2,00,08,072 tests conducted till date being molecular (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction — RT-PCR). RT-PCR testing is the gold standard test that has negligible chances of false negativity.
The State that had reduced its daily testing target to below 70,000 after January-end increased it to one lakh a day from March 15.
C.N. Manjunath, nodal officer for labs and testing in the State COVID-19 task force, said there was a need to further ramp up testing not just to prevent the spread of infection but also to ensure early intervention in sick patients. “We need to track patients at a moderately symptomatic stage for early admission and treatment. This is the key to reduce mortality, especially now that the numbers are rapidly increasing. That apart, contact tracing should also be stepped up to contain the second wave in the initial stage,” he said.
Four deaths
Karnataka on Wednesday reported 1,275 new cases of COVID-19, taking the total to 9,63,614. Of these, 786 cases were from Bengaluru Urban alone. With four deaths, the toll rose to 12,407. This is apart from 19 deaths of patients owing to non-COVID-19 reasons.
As many as 479 people were discharged on Wednesday, taking the total recoveries to 9,40,968. Of the remaining 10,220 active patients, 134 are being monitored in ICUs. While the positivity rate for the day stood at 1.47%, the Case Fatality Rate touched 0.31%.
Vaccination
As many as 6,55,162 senior citizens have been vaccinated in the State since March 1 when the second phase was rolled out. That apart, 1,49,151 people above 45 years with co-morbidities have been vaccinated. On Wednesday as many as 1,12,133 senior citizens and 26,532 people above 45 years with co-morbidities took the jab. Cumulatively, Bengaluru Urban has recorded the highest numbers — 1,93,253 and 33,170, respectively — in both these categories.
So far, a total of 4,99,171 healthcare workers and 1,83,805 frontline workers have taken the first dose of vaccination. As many as 3,01,847 healthcare workers have taken the second dose.
