Bengaluru: In Karnataka, the Covid positivity rate which had risen to about 40 percent last month when the state battled the deadly second wave of infections, dropped below 5 percent on Friday.
In the past 24 hours, 8,249 new Covid cases and 159 deaths have been recorded in the state and the number of active cases are 2,03,769.
Dr. K Sudhakar, State Health Minister, tweeted that the total number of recoveries in the state has passed the 25-lakh mark with 14,975 people recovering over the last 24 hours. ‘With 1,69,695 tests & 8,249 cases Karnataka’s positivity rate drops below 5% to 4.86%,’ he tweeted. The minister added that the state capital, Bengaluru, had reported 1,154 cases over the past 24 hours and the positivity rate there reaches 1.84 percent.
The new numbers will come as a relief to the residents of the state, where the daily number of cases had crossed 50,000 last month as a result of the second wave, which led to an increase in the number of cases and deaths in several parts of the country.
The state govt is not ready to take any chances, so they have extended the lockdown restrictions by a week, till June 21. The 11 districts, where the positivity rate is still high, continue to have severe curbs in place.
The state government has given some relaxation for districts where the positivity rate has fallen below 15 percent, The night curfew from 7 pm to 5 am remains to be in force across all districts. The weekend curfew also will remain.
Yesterday after addressing the media the Health Minister Dr. Sudhakar said that the state government has decided to extend the lockdown, and the government would hold a meeting before June 21 to take stock of the Covid situation and subsequently decide on what restraints should continue.
He also added that while the daily case count in capital Bengaluru had dropped, people should continue to follow Covid-appropriate behavior to stop another spike. ‘Without the cooperation of the citizens, it will be very difficult. Till the two doses of vaccines are given to all the people, the chances of (cases) spiking is like a hanging sword, so we need to be extremely careful,’ he said.
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