The active case tally in Mysuru has fallen below 100 with the drop in number of new cases. As on Thursday, the active cases stood at 97 with about 60 patients admitted in government as well as private hospitals, and the rest are home isolated.
The recovery rate is also faster as 21 patients were discharged even as 16 were tested positive to the infection on Thursday.
The testing target fixed for the district is around 6,000 daily. However, around 4,000 tests are being done every day with the numbers on some days falling below 4,000. But, on an average, around 4,000 tests are being done. Around 26 lakh tests have been done in Mysuru district since the first and second waves.
As the cases in the country have started to inch up because of Omicron, the cases in Mysuru continue to remain lesser and one of the crucial reasons has been the effective vaccination coverage. Though Omicron cases have also been reported among the vaccinated populations, the people are being urged to go for vaccination to minimise the threat and follow precautions such as wearing masks and maintaining social distance in public places for keeping the guard against the pandemic.
DHO K.H. Prasad said, “Our teams are ready for 6,000 tests a day but we are not getting the numbers for doing the tests though we have been conducting tests randomly covering schools, colleges, factories and so on. We have been told that all SARI and ILI patients must get tested.”
Random testing of shopkeepers and salespersons at malls and markets, staff of hotels and restaurants, students, teachers and other staff in colleges among others is being done. The increase in daily testing target is as part of the State Government’s direction for stepping up the surveillance by revising the daily target for the State with new clusters of COVID-19 cases being reported in different parts of Karnataka.
Besides covering the targeted testing of cases of ILI (Influenza-like Illness), SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infection), contacts of positive cases and high-risk groups, fortnightly random testing of selected groups like students and teachers of colleges and high schools is being carried out to reach the daily target. The government has also asked the officials to ensure that at least 10 per cent of samples are taken from children. The teams have been asked to test at least 5 per cent of the children in schools every week for their safety.
