Although the State has seen a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases in the past one month, the good news is that Karnataka’s recovery rate has seen a considerable jump in the past one week.
With 80,281 of the total 1,58,254 patients recovering, the recovery rate as on Thursday was 50.73%. The national average is 67.54%. The recovery rate, which was quite good in the State till June 18 at 62.72%, plummeted to 36.5% as on July 20 and stood at 39.36% on July 30. Now, it is again going up, sending out positive signals, said Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar.
In the past one week, while the overall rate in the State has increased by 11.37 percentage points, in Bengaluru it has risen by 20.7 percentage points, going from 29.59% on July 30 to 50.34% as on Thursday.
While Yadgir district has the highest recovery rate (73.7%), Vijayapura is second at 70.07%. Belagavi has the lowest recovery rate (26.37%).
Yadgir Deputy Commissioner Kurma Rao attributed the high recovery rate in his district to early detection and early intervention. “While most of the cases, initially from among the Maharashtra returnees, were asymptomatic, we have involved private doctors through the district unit of Indian Medical Association for treatment and management of critical cases,” he told The Hindu.
Recovery rate has seen an upward revision in the north Karnataka districts that had the highest influx of Mumbai returnees. While the rate is 66.9% in Uttara Kannada, it is 66.72% in Bidar, and 65.69% in Raichur.
Mr. Sudhakar said the rates were likely to go up further in the next week. “Positive cases in Karnataka started going up only in the last one month, whereas a few other States saw their peak in May and June. Hence, our recovery rate may be low when compared with such States. But the trend has reversed now.”
