Is Karnataka fudging Covid numbers?

A sudden drop in Covid cases in Bengaluru and major districts like Mysuru has triggered speculations that the government might be fudging data to show a fall in the number of cases.

Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar told the local media that “The virus has not yet vanished from Bengaluru, but is definitely not spreading with the ferocity it did a few weeks ago.”

Bengaluru had been reporting around 5,000 cases a day in early October. It was 1,874 on Tuesday. On Monday it was 1,603. But there is no magic here as the testing was low post the Dasara festival. On Monday and Tuesday, testing was low at 6,000-plus against the normal of 1 lakh.

Health officials said the positivity rate in Bengaluru had dropped to 11.8% on Sunday from 24.1% in July.