BENGALURU: In a cheery bit of news in these times of gloom, for the first time on Monday, the state reported more number of discharged patients (321) than active Covid-positive cases (296). “The average discharges per day as of last week are 16 and average positive cases are 14,” said Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar, who is the COVID-19 spokesperson for the state. Sixteen new cases were reported on Monday, excluding 21 from Davanagere mentioned in the state health bulletin that were already reported by TNIE on Monday. This brings the total number of cases in the state to 651.
The state saw its 27th Covid-19 death from Davanagere. A 48-year-old woman (P651), who was admitted on May 1 with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness and suffering from hypertension, diabetes and hypothyroidism, died on Monday. She was infected by a nurse (P533) at a primary healthcare centre, who is now being seen as a super-spreader infecting 19 people in the town.
Suresh Kumar said, “Of the 22 cases reported from Davanagere on Monday, except one patient who had Influenza-like Illness, others were contacts of the nurse (P533), who went to Bagalkot to attend a wedding, and P556, who has some links to Gujarat. The nurse had 25 primary contacts and 127 secondary contacts, while P556 had 12 primary contacts and 34 secondary contacts.”A lone positive case from Bengaluru is that of a 40-year-old policeman from Begur police station. A 30-year-old man from Chikkaballapur is the contact of P586 from that town.
Zones to be reviewed weekly: Health Commissioner
Two women — aged 20 and 19 — who had travelled to Mumbai, tested positive from Mandya. Haveri district reported its first case with a 32-year-old man from Savanuru, who had travelled to Mumbai, testing positive. A 62-year-old woman from Vijayapura, who was the secondary contact of patient 228, too was corona-positive. A 36-year-old woman from Kalaburagi, who was the contact of P604, and a 37-year-old man from Chincholi, Kalaburagi with travel history to Hyderabad tested positive. P590 has spread the virus to seven people in Bidar, who include four women — aged 35, 46, 50 and 72, two men — aged 60 and 22 and a 16-year-old boy.
On categorising red, green and orange zones, Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said, “The classification is done on a weekly basis. Green zones are areas where there have been no cases for the last 21 days. The red zones are classified based on four parameters, including the number of positive cases in the last 21 days, doubling rate, number of tests carried out, surveillance mechanisms and how effective they are.”
Kumar said that Bengaluru, despite being a red zone, was opened up for life-livelihood balance and also because the city is a major revenue earner for the state. In all, 28 people were discharged on Monday.