Bengaluru, the epicenter of the pandemic in Karnataka, saw a dip in new cases as 15,879 people tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday, taking its COVID-19 case tally to 9.83 lakh, including 3.62 lakh active cases, and 6.12 lakh recoveries. Authorities said that 5,378 patients had been discharged in the latest 24-hour period.
The number of fresh cases came down after the city reported over 20,000 new cases on a daily basis for several days, which had also led to the state government announcing a lockdown, and later extending it. On May 9, the city had reported 20,897 cases followed by 16,747 cases on Monday. Cases reported in Monday’s bulletin are generally lower due to fewer tests conducted by the state government during weekends.
Meanwhile, Karnataka reported 39,510 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday with 480 people succumbing to the disease, according to a bulletin by the state government released on Tuesday. “With 39,510 new cases registered on Monday, the state's COVID-19 tally shot up to 20 lakh, including 5.87 lakh active cases, while recoveries rose to 14.05 lakh, with 22,584 patients discharged during the day,” the daily bulletin said.
With 480 patients, including 259 in Bengaluru succumbing to the infection, the state's death toll rose to 19,852 and the city's toll to 8,690 till date.
Apart from Bengaluru, other districts that recorded high numbers of COVID-19 cases in the state were Tumakur with 2,496 cases, Mysuru with 2,170 cases, Ballari (1,558), Mandya (1,359), Shivamogga (1,108), Udupi (1,083), Kalaburagi (971), Dakshina Kannada (915) and Kolara (913).
Positivity rate rose to 33.99% and case fatality rate to 1.21% across the state on Monday. Out of 1.16 lakh tests conducted across the state during the day, 11,579 were through rapid antigen detection and 1.04 lakh were through the RT-PCR method. Meanwhile, 1.26 lakh people, including 95,975 in the 44-59 years age group and 20,278 in the 18-44 years age group were vaccinated across the state during the day.
"Cumulatively, 1.07 crore beneficiaries, including healthcare workers and frontline warriors have received the jab since the nationwide vaccination drive was launched on January 16 across the state," added the bulletin.
(With Inputs from IANS)