Karnataka has a coronavirus positivity rate of 1% – meaning 1 out of every 100 people tested is positive for the virus. This is much lower than India’s average of 5%, according to comparative analysis by the state’s COVID-19 War Room. Maharashtra fares worst with 14% positivity rate, followed by Telangana and Madhya Pradesh at 9% each. Neighbouring Tamil Nadu also has a positivity rate of 9%.
As of Friday (May 22), Karnataka has carried out around 1,99,000 tests, which amounts to 3,248 tests per million. With this Karnataka has the third highest testing rate in the country per million among large states, as compiled by the state War Room.
Comparing district-wise, Karnataka has eight districts which have more than 1.5% positivity with Mandya faring the worst with 2.6% testing positive out of total 9,500 tests. Davangere (2.5% out of 4,900), Udupi, (1.9% out of 28,000), Yadgir (1.7% out of 5,200), Hassan (1.6% out of 5,400) are other badly affected districts.
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Incidentally Mandya has the second highest number of cases in the state at 237, while Bengaluru has 265. Majority of Mandya’s cases are returnees from Maharashtra.
The same data table shows Bengaluru has the highest testing numbers at 25,700, while Kalaburagi has done 15,300 tests.
But considering the test per million population, Kalaburagi has the highest with 5,969 people tested per million population while Bengaluru has 2,667 tests per million population.
Delhi has 9,852 tests per million while neighboring Andhra Pradesh has 5,909 tests per million people at the top. India as a whole has 1,948 tests per million population as of Sunday afternoon.
Speaking on this, Dr CN Manjunath, nodal officer of COVID-19 testing in Karnataka said, “Testing measures in Karnataka have increased immensely. As of April 14, only around 500 tests were being done per day. However, today we have 60 labs in the state and there are around 10,000-11,000 tests being done on a daily basis.”
He added, “Karnataka has tested approximately 2 lakh people, out of which about 1% have tested positive. In March, the cases we saw were mostly international travelers and their contacts, but now we are seeing a lot of migrants being the primary source of infection. We do have institutional quarantine facilities in place, but as this space begins to fill up, we will need other options. It is ideal that those at risk must isolate themselves in their homes, regardless of quarantine facilities.”
With regards to asymptomatic individuals, in containment zones and hotspots, he said the government machinery is ensuring that testing of all primary contacts is being done and the situation is continuously being assessed so that testing can be increased for these persons if needed.
The highest number of tests done in a single day so far across the state was 12,229 (Friday) as the state had announced that it will conduct 10,000 tests daily by the end of the month.
*All data tables as published by Karnataka COVID-19 War Room