Following a significant rise in the State’s testing capacity, Karnataka is now among five States whose active cases have seen a considerable drop in the past few days.
While Maharashtra has seen the highest reduction (of 9,210 active cases), Karnataka’s drop of 3,050 was the second highest as on Monday.
The number of daily new positive cases too has reduced in the past one week. Karnataka, which reported over 10,000 cases consistently for the first 13 days of October, saw the numbers come down to around 7,500 daily. While the number came down to 5,018 on Monday, it was 6,297 on Tuesday.
While officials attributed this to increased testing — over one lakh samples a day continuously for the past 19 days — sources said some test results were “deliberately” being delayed to show a reduction in numbers. In September, when an average of 65,000 tests were conducted daily, around 8,500 cases were being reported per day.
The State’s average Test Positivity Rate (TPR), which had touched 13% in August and September, reduced to 9% in October. Tuesday’s TPR stood at 6.41%, while the Case Fatality Rate touched 1.04%.
Festival season crucial
Doctors, who said that the drop in cases was an all-India trend, asserted that people should not become complacent now.
V. Ravi, senior professor and head of Neuro Virology at NIMHANS, who is also part of the State’s COVID-19 expert committee, said, “We need to see this trend continuing for another one week to 10 days before we call it a decline. It is all the more important for people to safeguard themselves during the festival season.”
C.N. Manjunath, nodal officer for labs and testing in the State’s COVID-19 task force, said this was a crucial transition period. “We should not get carried away by the decline in numbers and become casual. People should continue following precautions and not become callous during the festival season. Always in distress whenever there is complacency, a rebound can happen,” he said.
6,297 cases, 66 deaths
Karnataka on Tuesday reported 6,297 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of cases to 7,76,901. With 66 new deaths, the toll rose to 10,608. This is apart from 19 deaths of COVID-19 patients caused by other reasons.
As many as 8,500 persons were discharged on Tuesday, taking the total number of recoveries to 6,62,329. Of the remaining 1,03,945 active cases, 941 patients were being monitored in ICUs as on Tuesday.
