After recently directing all hospitals to start both COVID and non-COVID services, the State Government on Wednesday instructed hospitals to discontinue routine COVID-19 testing of clinically asymptomatic persons prior to hospitalization (regular and day care) and other procedures.
This is based on the ICMR’s recent advisory on purposive testing strategy. The State’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) had also recommended the practice of testing all asymptomatic patients before hospitalization and surgeries should be stopped. However, testing of symptomatic persons should be continued, stated a circular issued here.
Meanwhile , Karnataka on Wednesday reported 667 new cases of COVID-19 taking the total to 39,38,699. Bengaluru Urban recorded 368 cases. The day’s test positivity rate in the State reduced to 0.91%.
With 21 deaths, the State’s toll rose to 39,866. With this, the day’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) touched 3.14%. This is apart from 37 deaths of patients due to non-COVID-19 reasons.
As many as 1,674 persons were discharged on Wednesday taking the total recoveries to 38,89,418. Active cases fell below 10,000 touching 9,378.
As many as 72,915 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, including 54,483 RT-PCR tests. With this, the total number of tests rose to 6,42,13,345.
