After reporting over 5,000 COVID-19 cases for the third consecutive day on Saturday, Karnataka now has the second-highest number of active cases in the country at 55,388, pushing Tamil Nadu to third place. Maharashtra continues to remain in first position with 1.45 lakh active cases.
With the 5,072 new cases on Saturday, the total number of positive cases in Karnataka touched 90,942. The State continues to remain in fourth position in the country in terms of total number of positive cases.
As many as 2,403 patients were discharged on Saturday, taking the total recoveries to 33,750. After recording 110 deaths on Friday, the number of daily fatalities came down to 72 on Saturday. The overall death toll now is 1,796.
Of the 5,072 new cases on Saturday, Bengaluru Urban reported 2,036 cases. Thirty of the 72 deaths were from Bengaluru Urban. The death toll in the district is now 862. With this, the total number of positive cases in Bengaluru Urban touched 43,503, while the active case count touched 31,882. The total number of people discharged also crossed the 10,000-mark to touch 10,758. As many as 686 patients from Bengaluru Urban were discharged on Saturday.
The State also conducted a record 32,765 tests on Saturday. This included 11,256 rapid antigen tests. With this, the total number of tests conducted in the State touched 11,43,262.
After Bengaluru Urban, Ballari, Belagavi, and Dakshina Kannada reported a major chunk of the positive cases, with 341, 222, and 218 cases, respectively.
Sample testing
Taking note of the delay in sample testing in ICMR-approved labs in the districts, Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar on Saturday reviewed the progress and discussed the reasons for delayed results with district administrative heads through a videoconference meeting.
The Chief Secretary directed the district heads not to delay sample results beyond 72 hours from time of collection. “There should be a maximum gap of 24 hours between sample collection and transportation to labs, a maximum of 24 hours between arrival of sample at the lab and data entry, and a maximum of 24 hours between data entry and getting test results.”
Software is being developed to monitor the process from sample collection, transportation and movement between labs and districts, he said.
