Karnataka on Thursday, January 20 registered 47,754 fresh COVID-19 cases with 30,540 being reported from Bengaluru alone. Minister for Health & Family Welfare Dr Sudhakar K said the positivity rate in the state stands at 18.48% while total discharges were at 22,143. Active cases in the state were at 2,93,231 with 2,58,290 tests conducted. Active cases in Bengaluru were at 200,000 and the city reported 8 deaths on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the state had reported 40,499 new cases of COVID-19, and 21 fatalities, taking the tally to 33,29,199 and the death toll to 38,486. The state, which has been witnessing a steady surge in cases since the last week of December, had recorded 41,457 fresh infections on Tuesday.
Of the new cases on Wednesday, 24,135 were from Bengaluru Urban that saw 18,081 people being discharged and five virus-related deaths. The total number of active cases across the state was at 2,67,650. There were 23,209 discharges, taking the total number of recoveries to 30,23,034, a health department bulletin said.
While the positivity rate for the day stood at 18.80 per cent, the case fatality rate (CFR) was 0.05 per cent. Of the 21 deaths, five were from Bengaluru Urban, four from Mysuru, three in Dakshina Kannada, and one each from Bagalkote, Belagavi, Chikkaballapura, Gadag, Hassan, Raichur, Shivamogga, Tumakuru and Vijayapura.
Meanwhile, India logged 3,17,532 new coronavirus infections, the highest in 249 days, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,82,18,773, which includes 9,287 cases of the Omicron variant, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
The active cases rose to 19,24,051, the highest in 234 days, while the death toll climbed to 4,87,693 with 491 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. There has been a 3.63 per cent increase in Omicron cases since Wednesday, the ministry said.
Experts said it is not possible to undertake genome sequencing of each and every sample but stressed that the current wave is largely being driven by Omicron.
The active cases comprise 5.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.09 per cent, the ministry said.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.
(With PTI inputs)