Friday saw the highest single-day rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in Karnataka since the onset of the novel coronavirus disease pandemic in the state on March 8, with the addition of 248 new cases.
Prior to this only, only May 23 saw a spike of over 200 cases, with an addition of 216 cases.
The state on Friday also reported the death of a 50-year-old COVID-19 patient who was admitted to hospital on May 24 with a head injury and died on Friday in a private hospital in Bengaluru. She was suffering from pneumonia and had an acute kidney injury. This brings the tally of COVID-19 fatalities in the state to 48.
The 248 cases were distributed in 29 districts of the state with three districts of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region reporting over 60 cases each.
Raichur, with 62 cases, saw the highest number of cases, followed by Kalaburagi, with 61 cases and Yadgir reporting 60 cases.
Udupi, which saw the fourth highest cases for Friday, had 15 patients who tested positive while Bengaluru saw a jump in cases by 12. Ballari saw a rise in cases by 11.
With this Bengaluru city remains the worst-affected district in the state, with 303 total cases, followed by Mandya which has 257. Kalaburagi is the third-worst affected district in the state with 251 cases, while Yadgir has 223 cases.
Rest of the districts have less than 200 cases, with Udupi being the highest of the lot, with 164 cases.
Maharashtra returnees form bulk of new cases
Among the 227 new cases that were reported on Friday who were among interstate passengers, 208 (91.6%) cases were among patients with travel history to Maharashtra.
The 208 cases were divided across 10 districts — 15 cases from Udupi, 2 from Mandya, 60 from Yadgir, 61 from Kalaburagi, 82 from Raichur, four from Vijayapura, and one each from Tumakuru, Ballari Chikkaballapura and Dharwad districts.
The rest of the patients are among contacts of infected persons, residents of containment zones, or have international travel history.
Notably, seven people in Bengaluru and one person in Chikkaballapura have no relevant contact or travel history. Eight other patients are contacts of infected persons.