With a steady decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases in the State, active cases too have plummeted significantly, going below the 25,000 mark in the last four days.
As of Tuesday, the number of active cases was 22,487 with Bengaluru Urban contributing 35.7% (8,047) of this caseload.
The drastic fall in active cases, for the first time in about four months, indicated a robust recovery rate of 97.9% in the State.
The State has been consistently reporting around 2,000 new cases and around 3,000 recoveries since July 10. The last time active cases hovered around the 25,000 mark was on March 30 (25,541) when the second wave had begun.
From 2,62,162 active cases on April 25, the number of active cases crossed 4 lakh and touched 4,05,068 on May 1 registering over a three-fold rise than the highest active cases (1,20,270) reported in October 2020, during the first outbreak. In mid-May, the State’s active caseload peaked and exploded, touching 6,05,494. However, cases started falling after that and had reduced by nearly half by May 31. By June 30, active cases plummeted to 76,505 and further dipped by half by July 15.
Although Karnataka overtook Maharashtra during May-June, the situation eased significantly in the first week of July and the State’s position on the national COVID-19 graph improved from first to third. Currently, it is fourth after Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
Experts said although the dip in active cases is an encouraging sign it is important that the State sustains the same momentum.
C.N. Manjunath, nodal officer for labs and testing in the State’s COVID-19 task force, said most of the patients testing positive for COVID now have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic and hence are recovering quickly bringing down the number of active cases.
“Some of the new cases are breakthrough infections (post-vaccination) and in those who had already been exposed to the virus. Hence, the disease is not severe in such patients facilitating early recovery. With lung involvement rare in such patients, most of them do not even require hospitalisation,” said Dr. Manjunath.
V. Ravi, member of the State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and nodal officer for genomic confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 in Karnataka, said it is encouraging to see a significant fall in active cases. “However, we have to ensure that the cases do not rise again. It is essential to maintain COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and avoid super-spreader events. While emphasis should be on vaccination, the State should continue the same pace of testing,” he said.
“The fall in active cases also indicates that people have understood that the only way forward is to get vaccinated and continue following COVID-19 protocols,” he added.
