For the first time after the lockdown was eased in June, the State’s daily test positivity rate (TPR) fell to 5.42% on Wednesday.
The TPR, which stood at an average of 7.7% in the last seven days, has been dipping since then. From 6.41% on Tuesday, the daily TPR further fell to 5.42% on Wednesday. The State’s cumulative TPR is currently 11.25%.
TPR, which is a vital marker in assessing the spread of an outbreak, is the percentage of people who are found to be infected by the virus from those who are being tested. While cumulative positivity rate takes into account all the people tested so far, the daily rate is for those tested on a particular day. According to epidemiologists, a high positivity rate indicates that testing is relatively limited to people with high suspicion of COVID-19 and may miss new chains of transmission in the community. The World Health Organisation recommends that the daily positivity rate be below 5% for at least two weeks before relaxing public health measures.
From 6.76% on June 27, the State’s daily TPR saw a drastic jump to 11.2% in over a month’s time (on July 29). TPR hovered between 11% and 18% for a long time before it reduced to 13% in September. Then it further reduced in October and stood at 9.53% on October 11. From then onwards, the TPR has been on a decline consistently.
Attributing this to the high number of tests being conducted in the State, Health and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar tweeted that the State has so far conducted 69,52,835 tests.
5,872 new cases
On Wednesday Karnataka reported 5,872 new cases taking the total to 7,82,773. With 88 deaths, the toll rose to 10,696. This is apart from 19 non-COVID deaths.
As many as 9,289 persons were discharged on Wednesday taking the total number of recoveries to 6,71,618. Of the remaining 1,00,440 active cases, 947 patients are being monitored in the ICUs.
Bengaluru Urban reported 2,717 cases taking the tally to 3,15,559. With 53 of the 88 deaths from Bengaluru, the toll in this district rose to 3,631. Active cases in Bengaluru touched 63,343.
As many as 1,08,241 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours including 21,623 rapid antigen tests. With this the total number of tests rose to 69,52,835.
