Karnataka Covid-19 wrap: Three more deaths take toll to 47; 60 testing labs set up

With interstate passengers arriving into the state, the government has made it compulsory for them to be under institutional quarantine for 14 days. The state has 2,328 people in hotel quarantine till Wednesday.

The death toll due to COVID-19 in Karnataka rose to 47 Wednesday with the death of three more patients in the last 24 hours, including a 69-year-old woman who had returned from Maharashtra.

According to the state health department bulletin, the woman, a resident of Yadagiri district, was brought dead to the designated hospital on May 20 and later tested positive for Covid-19. A 49-year-old resident of Bidar and an 82-year-old man from Vijayapura also passed away.

A 49-year-old man from Bidar was diagnosed at SARI and admitted to a designated hospital with complaints of fever, cough and breathlessness and a known case of Diabetes mellitus died on Wednesday. Another fatality has been reported from Vijayapura, an 82 year old male patient, who was a contact of another patient.

On Wednesday, Karnataka reported 135 new COVID19 cases taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 2,418, including 47 deaths and 781 recoveries.

Kalaburagi recorded 28 new cases, Yadgiri 16, Hassan 15, Bidar 14, Dakshina Kannada 11, Udupi 9, six cases each from Davangere and Bengaluru Urban, five cases each from Uttara Kannada and Raichur, four cases each from Belagavi and Chikkaballapur, three cases each from Chikkamagaluru and Vijayapura, two cases from Bengaluru Rural and one each from Tumakuru, Ballari, Mandya, and Kolar.

Karnataka sets up 60 labs to test COVID 19

The state has set up 60 labs to test COVID-19. According to Medical education minister Dr Sudhakar, the 60th COVID-19 testing lab will come up at Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Bengaluru. With this, Karnataka becomes the first state to meet the target of 60 labs by May 31 set by the Union government.

“Delivered as Promised: 60th COVID19 testing lab will come up at KIMS, Bengaluru. With this, Karnataka becomes first state to meet 60 Labs by May 31 target set by Union Govt. I thank our officials, NIMHANS & all who helped us in this achievement,” Sudhakar said in a tweet on Wednesday.

Karnataka tests 2,41,608 samples

The state has tested a total of 241,608 samples till Wednesday. Speaking to reporters, Primary and Secondary education Minister and spokesperson for COVID-19 in Karnataka S Suresh Kumar, said, “A total of 2,41,608 samples have been tested so far, out of which 12,694 were tested on Wednesday alone. So far 2,35,876 samples have reported as negative, and out of them 12,399 reported negative on Wednesday.”

The state government had earlier promised to conduct 10,000 tests per day. “We had a target of testing 10,000 samples per day, but we have already crossed it,” He added.

2,328 persons are in hotel quarantine in Karnataka

With interstate passengers arriving into the state, the government has made it compulsory for them to be under institutional quarantine for 14 days. The state has 2,328 people in hotel quarantine till Wednesday.

S Suresh Kumar said there are 798 people are staying in five-star hotels, 1,096 in three-star hotels and 434 people are in budget hotels in the state.

The Karnataka government has marked three, four, and five-star hotels for the passengers coming to the state from abroad and other states to quarantine them.

Domestic passengers flying in from six COVID 19-hit states to Karnataka are quarantined for seven days in institutional centers like hotels. Passengers flying in from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh to Bengaluru from May 25 will go through seven days institutional quarantine followed by a seven-day home quarantine. Passengers from other states will be sent in 14-day home quarantine.