COVID-19 cases continued to rise in Karnataka as the state reported 623 new cases and one death on Sunday, June 19. The average number of cases over the past week increased to 620 when in contrast, less than 100 cases were reported everyday until May 20. In the first week of June, the daily cases rose to 200 in the state before increasing to over 500 per day in the past week.
The rise in COVID-19 cases in Karnataka comes at a time cases are rising across India including in all five southern states. In Kerala, the average weekly COVID-19 cases went up from 853 to 2,959 between June 1 and June 19. In Tamil Nadu, the weekly average went up from 82 to 499 in the same period. In Telangana, the average weekly cases increased from 51 to 228 and in Andhra Pradesh, it increased from 6 to 48 in the same period.
On Sunday, Bengaluru Urban district recorded the maximum number of cases in the state with 588 new infections reported by the state Health Department. Among the other districts, 13 cases were reported in Dakshina Kannada, six in Mysuru, four each in Udupi and Uttara Kannada, and two in Bengaluru Rural. One death of a COVID-19 patient was reported in Belagavi district in the state.
The positivity rate (percentage of people who test positive for the virus of those overall who have been tested) rose to 2.68%.in the state. There are 27 active COVID-19 clusters in Bengaluru, of which 21 are in the Mahadevapura zone in the eastern side of the city as per data shared by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The civic body's data shows there are two clusters each in Yelahanka, Dasarahalli and RR Nagar in the city.