With over 1.17 lakh people recovering since October 1, Karnataka’s total recoveries breached the six lakh mark on Tuesday. With 10,421 patients getting discharged in the last 24 hours, the total recoveries touched 6,02,505.
Recoveries that crossed the one lakh mark on August 11 shot up considerably since then. A total of 3,47,879 people have beaten the infection from September 1 onwards and recoveries have outnumbered active cases by over five times. Over 58% of the total recoveries have happened since then. The State’s recovery rate rose after the State tweaked its discharge policy in August. While in the initial months, patients were being discharged only after two negative reports within 48 hours, the State changed its policy that allowed a patient’s discharge after 10 days if he/she does not have any symptoms for three consecutive days before discharge. The recovery rate that was just about 50.73% till August 6, now stands at 83%. The national average is 87% as of Tuesday. Recovery rate in at least 17 districts in the State is higher than the national average.
Stating that an increasing recovery rate is a positive sign, Giridhara R. Babu, member of State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee, said: “As recoveries increase, we will soon reach a stage where the growth rate of recoveries too will plateau till active cases come down.”
Stating that the recovery rate reflects whether the curve flattens and bends, he said the focus must continue to be on doing more and more tests using a syndromic approach.
Meanwhile, the State on Tuesday reported 8,191 new cases taking the total number to 7,26,106. With 87 new deaths, the toll rose to 10,123. This is apart from 19 non-COVID-19 deaths.
Active cases continued to remain over lakh with 1,13,459. Of these, 919 patients are being monitored in the ICUs.
As many as 1,06,241 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, including 43,023 rapid antigen tests. With this, the total number of tests rose to 61,37,221.
