Even as the State ramped up its testing to 16,670 - the highest on a single day - as many as 1,272 new cases (also the highest on a single day) and seven deaths have been reported on Wednesday.
With this the total number of cases has touched 16,514 and the death toll has risen to 253 apart from four non-COVID-19 deaths. As many as 292 patients are being monitored in the ICU.
While Bengaluru Urban and Bidar have reported two deaths each, Dakshina Kannada, Belagavi and Hassan have reported one each.
735 in Bengaluru
As many as 735 of Wednesday’s cases are from Bengaluru alone. What is worrisome is the fact that the contact or the source patient of all the 735 cases in Bengaluru is under tracing. With this, the city has now recorded a total of 4,649 cases.
While the State has been testing an average of 14,000 samples every day, the number crossed 16,500 and touched 16,670 on Wednesday. Previously, 16,100 samples had been tested and 400 of the samples had tested positive then.
With 145 new discharges, the total number of persons who have recovered has touched 8,053.
More cases in NIMHANS
Meanwhile, five more staffers from NIMHANS tested positive since Tuesday. NIMHANS Resident Medical Officer Shashidhara said a resident doctor, two staff nurses, a data entry operator and a housekeeping staff tested positive. With this, a total of 15 staffers are positive at NIMHANS now.
“On Wednesday casualty and emergency services have been temporarily shifted to the adjacent block. As one of the infected persons is from the Clinical Pathology Lab, investigations have been outsourced without taxing the patients. Patient services have not been hampered,” he said.
Guidelines on food
Following the advice from experts, the State Health Department has issued a circular directing COVID-19 hospitals to provide dietary food to patients. A detailed menu with timings for breakfast, mid-morning snacks, lunch, evening snacks and dinner apart from a post-dinner beverage has been issued. The same menu should be followed for patients, doctors and other hospital staff.
