The next three months are crucial for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic as winter and a chain of festivals sure pose a big challenge, cautioned Health, Family Welfare and Medical Education Minister Dr K. Sudhakar.
"People should compulsorily follow the safety guidelines of wearing masks, maintaining physical distance and regular hand washing during the festive season," appealed the minister, adding that the government was taking adequate measures to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in the flood ravaged districts of north Karnataka region.
The minister highlighted that Bengaluru had scaled up its testing capacity and was doing better than most other metros. "Bengaluru has seen a significant rise, by 73 per cent, in COVID testing capacity and a drastic reduction in the mortality rate. While the city had conducted 13.20 lakh tests till September, a staggering 22.90 lakh tests were conducted in the last month alone. It is a huge increase of 49 per cent compared to Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Delhi," said Dr Sudhakar.
As of October 19, Karnataka had about 1,06,214 active cases against a total of 7,70,604 cases, as 6,53,829 patients have been discharged. On Monday, the state saw 5,028 new cases, of which 2,481 were in Bengaluru alone. The state has reported 10,542 Covid deaths till date.
"Early detection and intervention helped reduce the mortality rate. Currently, the mortality rate in the state is 1.37 per cent and in Bengaluru 1.14 per cent. Our target is to reduce it below 1 per cent. The increase in the number of cases is due to more number of tests. The virus is under control and it is clear from the actual number of infected persons at this point," the minister reasoned.
Karnataka conducts around 80,000 RT-PCR tests and 30,000-40,000 antigen tests per day.
