Even as the total cases in Karnataka rose to 794 with 41 new ones on Saturday, the State has crossed the mark of testing over one lakh samples so far. A total of 1,03,098 samples have been tested. The State now has 32 ICMR approved testing labs, including 11 private labs.
Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar tweeted that Karnataka has crossed a milestone. “We are boosting our testing capacity to have 60 labs by end of this month and will be able to conduct 10,000 tests per day.”
The 41 new cases reported on Saturday include 12 from Bengaluru Urban, eight from Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada, six from Davangere, four from Tumkuru, three each from Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga and Bidar, and one each from Chickballapur and Vijayapura. While most cases are contacts of previous positive patients, six are with travel history to Ahmedabad. In Bengaluru Urban, five are from Hongasandra and the remaining from Padarayanapura, both containment zones.
Following complaints that Medical Superintendents, Administrative Medical Officers and in-charge officers of COVID-19 facilities are discharging patients without informing the District Surveillance Officers due to which the department loses track of the patients, the Additional Chief Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Jawaid Akhtar has issued a circular that they should compulsorily inform the jurisdictional District Surveillance Officers about discharges.
