Back to square one: Covid cases swell again in K’taka

After reporting a decline in Covid-19 cases, Karnataka again recorded a spike in new cases with 6,257 people testing positive on Tuesday. While Bengaluru maintained a declining trend with 1,610 cases, the virus seems to be spreading to other districts like Ballari (736 cases), Belagavi (575) Dharwada (276), Dakshina Kannada (234) and Mysuru (238).

With Tuesday’s numbers, active cases are 79,606 and total caseload 1,88,611. The state also recorded 86 Covid19 deaths taking the death toll to 3,398.

Despite cases shooting up, the silver lining is the number of discharges over the past 10 days has increased to 88% compared to those cured as on July 31. The number of new Covid cases in the same period showed a 44% jump.

The interpretation of the figures indicates though there was an alarming surge in new cases in July, the state is now plateauing and witnessing a more sustained daily growth, while the recoveries have surged. Compared to 40% as of July 31, the recovery rate in the state as on August 9 stood at 53%.

Health experts attribute two reasons to this: the cycle of recoveries has kicked in and many people who had contracted the infection in late June and early July are now being discharged.

Second, Karnataka has modified its discharge policy

— people in hospital can be sent home if they show no symptoms for three consecutive days after being admitted. This has resulted in the discharge numbers showing a healthy figure. Earlier, a patient had to spend between 10 and 14 days in hospital.

Experts feel as recoveries rise, the growth rate of recoveries too will plateau till active cases come down. Also, the recovery rate will reflect if the curve flattens and bends. The focus of the state is to do more tests and increase detection of cases.