With high rate of spread, active cases climb to over 25,000

During the first wave, it took 128 days for active cases to cross 25,000

The recent spurt in COVID-19 infections in the State has been more rapid than the wave last year. As a result, it took a lesser number of days for active cases to rise in the second wave compared to the first. Karnataka’s active cases on Tuesday touched 25,541.

During the first wave, it took 128 days for active cases to cross 25,000. While the first case was reported in the State on March 8, 2020, active cases touched 25,839 on July 14, 2020. However, active cases declined to as low as 5,824 on March 1 and shot up to cross 25,000 within in a month.

Active cases in the State peaked at 1,20,270 on October 10 and started declining since then reducing to 50,592 by November 1. This number further reduced to 25,146 on November 17 and since then there has been a consistent decline till March 1.

Of the 25,541 active cases as of Tuesday in the State, 17,582 are in Bengaluru alone. With 1,116, Kalaburagi has the next highest active cases after Bengaluru followed by Bidar with 818 active cases.

State Health Commissioner K.V. Trilok Chandra said that with the daily addition of nearly 300 new cases, active cases are piling up in the State. “Nearly 85% of these cases are under home isolation. We are able to manage as of now with the existing beds and are preparing to further expand facilities in the coming days,” he said.

He said home isolation patients are being properly triaged and monitored on a regular basis. The number of active cases will change every ten days as more patients recover, he said.

Giridhar R. Babu, member of the State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), said active cases are bound to surge as the test positivity rate (TPR) is increasing rapidly. “As of now the TPR is hovering between 2% and 3%. If this goes beyond 5%, which is bound to happen in a few days, it means that the outbreak is beyond amenable to containment,” he said. “Besides, the growth rate of cases from week to week is also rapid now compared to the first wave. The Reproductive Number has also gone beyond 1.6% and all these are worrying trends,” he added.

Asserting that the bed capacity in hospitals should be increased at the earliest, he added that the centralised bed allotment system incorporating private hospital beds should be restarted as the number of ICU cases are also on the rise.