Karnataka logs 25,005 new Covid-19 infections, plans 2 lakh tests a day

Of the new cases, 18,374 were from Bengaluru Urban, which also saw three deaths. One each of the rest of the deaths was from Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Mysuru, Tumakuru, and Vijayapura districts. After Bengaluru, Mysuru recorded the second-highest tally of 695 new cases, followed by Dakshina Kannada (625), Tumakuru (547), Hassan (490), Mandya (406), among others.

Bengaluru continued to account for three-fourth of the state’s total cases, and the positivity rate hit 20 per cent. The capital saw an 18 per cent increase from yesterday’s tally of 15,617 cases. The city’s active cases stood at 90,893.

30% of beds for children

Health Minister K Sudhakar said that 30 per cent of the beds in district and taluk hospitals had been reserved for children and that Covid tests were being conducted in schools every 15 days. As many as 4.89 crore people in the state have received first doses of Covid vaccines and 3.98 crore both the doses, and about 81.5 per cent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated in the state, according to a statement issued by the minister.

Cases may double in two days

On December 28, there were 356 cases in the state, including 269 in Bengaluru. On January 5, Bengaluru reported 3,605 cases and the rest of the state logged 641 cases.

“On January 11, we had 10,800 cases in Bengaluru alone and 3,673 in the rest of the state. So between December 28 and January 11, in 15 days, the cases have increased by 32.64 per cent in Bengaluru Urban district, 32.65 per cent in the Bengaluru municipal corporation and 36.44 per cent in the state, the minister said.

While the doubling time in the first wave was 10-12 days, it was eight days during the second wave. But in the third wave, the cases are doubling every 2 or 2.5 days. Between January 1-11, there were 62, 641 active cases and about 6 per cent of them were in hospital.

“We have set a target of at least 2 lakh tests per day and we will increase it further. About 1 lakh tests are being done in Bengaluru. About 265 labs are operational in the state and there are nine genomic labs—five state-government labs and four central government labs. We have a capacity to sequence 1,875 samples in one batch.

“After the second wave, at Rs.243 crore, we have established an additional 6,386 oxygen beds and 2,928 ICU beds in 147 taluk hospitals. And 665 oxygen beds and 263 ICU beds have been added in 19 district hospitals at Rs.25 crore. The state has 3,460 ventilators and 8,100 oxygen concentrators. Of the 266 oxygen plants allotted to Karnataka, 217 are operational,” the minister’s statement said.