Karnataka to set up panel to study long-term effects of Covid-19

“Karnataka will constitute a special technical committee of medical experts to study the long-term effects of Covid-19 in people who have recovered from the infection. We will evaluate those who had mild or severe symptoms, with a special focus on patients with comorbidity,” Sudhakar said.

Sudhakar said the research will help the medical community further improve Covid-19 treatment.

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Karnataka is currently fourth on the list of Indian states with the highest Covid caseload, with over 5.11 lakh people having contracted the infection so far. As per the Department of Health and Family Welfare Services, the state as on September 19 had nearly one lakh active Covid-19 cases, with over 42 per cent of them in the capital city Bengaluru alone.

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So far, over 4 lakh people have recovered from Covid-19.

As the total tally exceeded 5 lakh on September 18, it has been observed than the latest one lakh cases were reported only in a span of 11 days, whereas the initial one lakh cases had been recorded over a timeframe of 141 days (March 8 to July 27).

The number of fatalities linked to the pandemic, too, continues to rise, with at least 7,922 people succumbing to the infection across Karnataka since March 10. Bengaluru is on top of the list (among 29 others), with over 33 per cent of Covid-19 deaths reported from the capital.

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While 3,595 such deaths were recorded between August 19 and September 19 in Karnataka, the same between July 19 and August 19 was 2,996, indicating a 17 per cent increase in the number of deaths within a month.

To date, Karnataka has tested over 41 lakh samples for Covid-19, of which over 65 per cent included Reverse Transcription – Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) and other methods, while the rest were Rapid Antigen tests.