Coronavirus | Karnataka cases swell as 248 test positive

Maharashtra impact weighs heavily on case tally in the State; Kerala, Karnataka, A.P. register one death each

Kerala reported another COVID-19 death on Friday, taking the toll to eight. It also recorded 62 positive cases, of which 56 were cases imported from outside the State. A 50-year-old woman from Chickballapur, Karnataka and one individual in Andhra Pradesh also passed away.

Besides the imported cases, the new ones in Kerala included that of two cabin crew of Air India who had come on a flight to Thiruvananthapuram; two remand prisoners at Neyyattinkara special sub-jail; one health-care worker in Palakkad; and one person in Ernakulam who is believed to have acquired the infection through contact with a known/unknown source.

Kerala’s latest COVID-19 death was that of a 65-year-old person from Thiruvalla who had returned from Sharjah and was being treated at Government Medical College Hospital, Kottayam.

The Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, said on Friday that the rising case graph should not be a cause for concern as Kerala had devised its containment strategy, fully aware that there would be an exponential increase in cases when the lockdown was eased.

Of the 62 new positive cases, 33 were expatriates and 23 were from other States.

Palakkad accounted for 14 cases, Kannur 7, Thrissur 6, Pathanamthitta 6, Thiruvananthapuram and Malappuram 5 each, Kasaragod and Ernakulam 4 each, Alappuzha 3, Wayanad and Kollam 2 each, while Kottayam, Idukki, and Kozhikode reported one case each.

Ten people recovered from the disease, and 577 were under treatment in different hospitals. Of the total 1,150 positive cases reported so far, 565 had recovered.

The State had tested 62,746 samples, of which 60,448 were negative. Of 11,468 sentinel surveillance samples, 10,635 were negative.

Karnataka’s turn

About 91% of the 248 cases reported on Friday in Karnataka were passengers who had come from other States.

The new cases — the highest so far for a single day — raised total positive cases in Karnataka to 2,781. As many as 227 had domestic travel history and a majority had returned from Maharashtra. One patient had an international travel history.

The female patient from Chickballapur was admitted to a Bengaluru hospital on Thursday, tested positive for COVID-19 and died on Friday. The deaths related to COVID-19 in Karnataka stood at 48.

Andhra Pradesh had 3,330 positive cases, including 85 (33 local and 52 migrant) new ones. Patients discharged stood at 2,226 and active cases at 1,044. The death toll was 60 after one person died during the 24-hour period.

(With inputs from Bengaluru, Vijayawada bureaus)