With 149 new cases and three deaths, Karnataka had another record single-day spike on Tuesday. Over 75% of the new COVID-19 cases were those with travel history to Maharashtra. Telangana recorded four more deaths, while two people died in Andhra Pradesh. Kerala had 12 cases on Tuesday, all of them imported.
With 71 new cases, Mandya in Karnataka had a big chunk of fresh positives, all under quarantine after returning from Mumbai.
The three deaths took the toll to 41, including one non-COVID death. Karnataka’s fatality rate stood at 2.8%. The deaths were in Ballari, Vijayapura and Bengaluru and all had a history of ischaemic heart disease and other co-morbidities.
Although Karnataka’s tally touched 1,395, the bed occupancy was 6.09% of the nearly 28,000 beds designated for COVID-19. A 61-year-old male patient in Ballari, diagnosed with SARI and with travel history to Bengaluru, had undergone cardiac surgery recently. He died on May 19 in Ballari.
In Vijayapura, a 65-year-old man with ischaemic heart disease, hypertension and diabetes was brought dead on May 18 to a local designated hospital. He tested positive for COVID-19. A 54-year-old man in Bengaluru with ischaemic heart disease was admitted to a private hospital in the city and died on May 18. He too tested positive. While 22 cases were reported from Davangere, 13 from Kalaburgi and 10 from Shivamogga, Bengaluru Urban saw six cases and Chikkamagaluru and Bagalkot five cases each. Four cases each were from Udupi and Uttara Kannada and three from Hassan. The districts of Yadgir, Raichur, Vijayapura, Bidar, Chitradurga and Gadag reported one case each.
57 positives in A.P.
The COVID-19 death toll in Andhra Pradesh rose to 52. Of 9,739 tests carried out in a 24-hour window, 57 were positive and the case tally was 2,489, a bulletin said.
One death each was reported in Chittoor and Kurnool districts. Kurnool had the highest toll at 20 among the districts and with Krishna accounted for 70% of casualties.
Six fresh cases — five in Chittoor and one West Godavari — were linked to Koyambedu in Tamil Nadu.
But 69 patients in various districts had recovered in the past day, leaving 816 active patients under treatment. Total recoveries were 1621.
So far, 2,58,450 samples were tested in the State, representing 5,169 tests per million population. The positivity rate was 0.96% and recovery rate 65.12%. The death rate was at 2.08%.
Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, reiterated on Tuesday that there was no evidence of community transmission in the State.
Addressing the media, he said the results of the sentinel surveillance sample testing done by the State was ample evidence that community transmission was yet to happen.
The State had tested samples from 5,630 persons from vulnerable groups in the community such as health care workers, the elderly and those on quarantine. However, only four samples were positive. This clearly indicated that community transmission was not happening, he said.
With more people returning to the State, strict measures as well as reverse quarantining would be tightened, especially in containment zones, because community transmission was an imminent threat, Mr. Vijayan, said.
Telangana’s toll rose to 38, as four more deaths were reported. Cases continued to surge as 42 more were detected. Of these, 34 were from Greater Hyderabad, and eight were migrants from Yadadri, Karimnagar and Sircilla.
(With inputs from Vijayawada, Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad Bureaus)
