BENGALURU: In a massive spike, by far the biggest, a total of 1,267 new Covid-19 cases were added to Karnataka’s tally on Sunday, taking the overall count from 11,923 to 13,190 overnight. Bengaluru alone added a record high of 783 cases, pushing up the state’s numbers sharply. On Saturday, Bengaluru had accounted for 596 cases.
With the back-to-back surge, Bengaluru now has 3,314 Covid-19 positive cases of which 2,692 are active (currently under treatment). Kalburagi comes second, but is behind Bengaluru by almost 2,000 cases, at 1,398 positive cases and only 371 active cases, followed by Udupi with 1,179 positive cases and 135 active cases.
The death toll in the state now stands at 207 with 16 more deaths. Of these, four were in Bengaluru, three in Dakshina Kannada, two in Tumakuru and one each in Dharwad, Hassan, Mysuru, Bagalkot, Ballari, Kolar and Kalaburagi. Of the 16 who died, four did not have any co-morbidites and most of them suffered from fever, cough and breathlessness. The death toll in Bengaluru now stands at 88.
Commenting on the deaths, epidemiologist and member of state Covid-19 task force, Dr Giridhara R Babu, in a tweet on Sunday, said, “Bengaluru has the third highest case fatality rate (CFR) in the country, worsening the indicators for Karnataka.
The state’s CFR is 1.54 per cent and Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts, put together, is 4.85 per cent.” As of now, 243 patients of the 5,472 active cases are in ICU. At least 155 of the ICU patients are in Bengaluru. With Bengaluru emerging as a hotspot, all attention is now on the city to stop or at least slow down the Covid-19 surge.
Two new task forces formed to tackle Covid
Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar has issued an order to form two new task forces — one headed by T K Anil Kumar, principal secretary to the Medical Education department, and the other by N Jayaram, Chairman, Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board (BWSSB). While the former will look into private medical colleges, bed allotments, Covid care centres and medical staff strength, the latter will look into private hospital facilities.
Both will report to BBMP Commissioner B H Anil Kumar. The Chief Secretary also issued an order warning private hospitals not to refuse treatment to Covid-19 patients. The order states that private medical establishments in the state shall not deny/refuse/avoid treatment to patients with Covid-19 and similar symptoms. They shall also strictly adhere to to the provisions under Section 11 and 11 A of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment (KPME) Act, 2017, it adds. “Non-compliance of the order will attract punishment under the relevant Sections of Disaster Management Act, 2005, KPME Act, 2017 and the Indian Penal Code,” the order warns.
Currently, Bengaluru has 65 active containment zones. The other districts with high number of cases on Sunday are Dakshina Kannada with 97, Ballari with 71, Udupi , 4 0 , a n d Kalaburagi, 34. For the past two days, the state has left out the category of contact history, travel history, SARI or ILI case in its bulletin, which is usually mentioned against each patient’s details. Officials, however, said the daily bulletin will revert to its previous form in a day or so. Post announcement of the Sunday lockdown, Chief Secretary Vijay Bhaskar issued official orders giving it effect from July 5 for the next four Sundays. He ordered government offices to function for five days a week from July 10 to August 8, and revised curfew timings between 8 pm and 5 am on all days of the week.