With a rise in new COVID-19 cases, the number of active cases in Karnataka have shot up by nearly 67% in the last one month. From 1,666 cases on May 20, active cases increased to 5,035 on June 19. However, the proportion of hospitalisations and deaths continues to remain low so far.
Bengaluru Urban continues to be the epicentre of COVID-19 in Karnataka. Nearly 96% of the total active cases are from the State capital. In the last one month, the daily incidence of new cases in Bengaluru Urban has risen from 89 (on May 20) to 588 on June 19.
Accordingly, active cases too shot up from 1,591 on May 20 to 4,833 on June 19. On June 20, active cases reduced marginally to 4,928 in the State, of which 4,723 are from Bengaluru Urban.
Rise and fall
The number of active COVID-19 cases in the third wave in Karnataka fell below the 50,000 mark on February 11 and further below the 20,000 mark on February 17 after hitting a peak of 3,62,487 cases on January 24. From March 20, active cases fell below 2,000 and were hovering around 1,800 till April 4 when the number further plummeted to 1,500.
Subsequently, active cases started rising but remained within 2,000 till May 30. With new cases also seeing a jump from within 200 till May end to above 600 now, active cases are increasing by the day.
As of Monday, 42 patients were admitted in hospitals and all of them are in Bengaluru. Except for nine patients (five in ICU and four in high dependency units in Bengaluru), all have occupied general wards in government hospitals. In the last one month, seven deaths have been reported in the State of which three are from Bengaluru.
State Health Commissioner Randeep D. said the rise in active cases is in proportion to the average rise in daily new cases. “However, as the percentage of hospitalised patients to active cases is very low, the situation is not alarming and there is no reason to panic,” he said.
The Commissioner said he has already written to the Medical Education Secretary to earmark beds in Victoria Hospital and Bowring and Lady Curzon Medical College Hospital and Research Institution.
Conducive for a wave
M.K. Sudarshan, chairman of the State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), said all prevailing conditions are conducive for a wave.
“With resumption of international and domestic air/rail and road transport and all other commercial activities, movement of people is unhindered. However, people have become complacent and are not following protocols, including the basic wearing masks. With the rate of precaution dose vaccination being very low and waning immunity, people are susceptible to get infected,” he said.
“Although BA.4 and BA.5 have been detected through sewage surveillance, there is no confirmation from INSACOG. It appears the local surges could be due to these variants. The need of the hour is speedy reporting of genomic sequencing with swift confirmation by INSACOG,” the TAC chairman added.
C.N. Manjunath, member of the State’s Clinical Experts Committee, said the situation is still not alarming as the doubling rate of new COVID-19 cases is low.
“It is important that people do not become complacent now. Masking up is essential, especially in crowded areas and closed spaces. But it is unfortunate that people are not wearing masks even in public rallies,” he added.
