For the first time in many weeks, new COVID-19 cases plunged to below 1000 in Bengaluru, with 840 new cases reported on Sunday in the city. Six new related fatalities for the day were also reported. With this cumulatively, the city has reported 3.57 lakh infections, 4,003 deaths, 3.35 lakh discharges, including 847 on Sunday. Its tally of active cases stands at 18,171.
A bulletin by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said that there were only two active containment zones in the city, both of which fell under the Mahadevapura zone.
Karnataka reported 1,565 fresh COVID-19 cases as the overall tally reached 8.61 lakh while 21 deaths pushed the toll to 1,529, the Health Department said on Sunday. Only Bengaluru showed the infections in three digits while the numbers in the rest of the districts were either in single-digit or double digits.
The state continued to show a sharp decline in COVID-19 cases and fatalities from over 10,700 cases and above 200 deaths a day two months ago, to a mere 1,500-odd cases and 21 deaths now. According to Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar, the COVID-19 recovery and mortality rates were 95.50% and 1.33% respectively.
The total infections comprise 8.22 lakh discharges cumulatively, including 2,363 on Sunday and 27,146 active cases including 746 in ICUs, a bulletin issued by the department said.
There was a welcome trend of zero fatalities in 18 districts of the state, including Kalaburagi, where the first death due to coronavirus took place in the country.
According to the bulletin, 79 fresh infections were reported in Tumakuru, followed by 71 in Mysuru, 52 in Chitradurga, 47 in Belagavi, 46 in Mandya and 45 in Uttara Kannada.
Bagalkote, Ballari, Bengaluru Rural, Chikkaballapura, Chikkamagaluru, Dakshina Kannada, Davangere, Dharwad, Hassan, Kalaburagi, Kodagu, Raichur and Shivamogga were also among the districts where cases were reported.
The health bulletin showed that there were three deaths in Mysuru and two deaths each in Ballari and Dakshina Kannada. One death each due to coronavirus was reported in Bagalkote, Davangere, Dharwad, Hassan, Haveri, Tumakuru, Uttara Kannada and Vijayapura.
Of the 746 patients in the intensive care units (ICUs), 369 are in Bengaluru hospitals, 39 are in Kalaburagi, 37 are in Mysuru and 30 are in Tumakuru district. Out of 99,606 tests conducted on Saturday, 17,075 were through the rapid antigen detection and 82,531 through the RT-PCR method. The total tests done so far stands at 94.92 lakh, the department added.
"Positivity rate for the day was 1.57% and case fatality rate was 1.34% across the southern state," added the bulletin.