BENGALURU: With Karnataka recording the sharpest single-day spike of 32,793 new cases on Saturday, a 14.16 per cent jump from 28,723 cases a day earlier, it stood among top three states that are leading the Covid surge in the country. The daily positivity rate too went up to 15 per cent from 12.98 per cent.
Delhi and Maharashtra are the other two states that are on top. But Delhi on Saturday reported 1,887 cases lesser than Friday, while Maharashtra added only 9,836 cases to the previous day’s tally. With Karnataka yet to see the peak, experts fear that the State may soon be the highest contributor of Covid cases in the country.
“The state will reach its peak only by this month-end or early next month and cases could reach 1.2 lakh per day. Other places in the state too are reporting a surge. The city is expected to see 45-50,000 cases,” said an expert from the Technical Advisory Committee.
But hospitals may not be burdened this time as compared to last year, as the infection seems milder in the Omicron-driven third wave, he said. The state could see around 8 lakh active cases at its peak, but most patients would be under home isolation, he added.
“We expect the peak around February first week. We are mandatorily giving medical kits to all those under home isolation,” Health Commissioner D Randeep said. As in earlier two waves when Bengaluru was the epicentre at the beginning, Covid cases and test positivity rate are increasing in neighbouring districts too. While Bengaluru led with 22,284 cases on Saturday, Tumakuru district recorded its highest single-day spike of 1,326 cases, Hassan saw 968 cases, while Mysuru and Mandya had 729 and 718 cases. The districts where the test positivity rate has gone above Bengaluru Urban (22.23 per cent) are Ramanagara at 26.72 per cent and Bengaluru Rural at 21.29%.
In anticipation of the peak, the state government has stopped all non-emergency hospital services for the next two weeks. An order was issued on Saturday asking people to refrain from going to hospitals for mild illnesses and follow-up care. Private hospitals too were told to take similar steps.
