Test positivity rate remains below 1% for the last one week

KEY STORY

• Karnataka has been consistently maintaining a test positivity rate (TPR) of less than 1% for the last one week. The State’s TPR has been on a steady decline since January end when the seven-day average TPR stood at 17.09%. It reduced to 0.72% in a month by February 28 and 0.59% on March 2.

• Although the daily TPR had fallen below 0.5% after over four months on Wednesday, it again rose to 1.04% on Thursday. It was last on October 17, 2021 when the State reported a TPR of less than 0.5%.

• TPR, which is a vital marker in assessing the spread of an outbreak, is the percentage of people who are found to be infected by the virus from those who are being tested.

  Six districts

  Although six districts have a TPR higher than the State average, it is still hovering between 1.04% and 0.67% in these districts. At 1.04% Kodagu, has the highest seven-day average TPR as of Thursday. This is the only district in the State where the TPR is above 1%. While Haveri, Yadgir and Gadag have the lowest at 0.08%, 24 districts have been maintaining a TPR of less than 0.05% for the last few days.

  On Thursday, while six districts — Bagalkot, Davangere, Haveri, Mandya, Raichur and Ramanagaram — reported zero cases, 17 districts reported cases in single digits.

  C.N. Manjunath, nodal officer for labs and testing in the State’s COVID-19 task force, said people should continue to follow COVID precautions. “Also, people should not ignore any post-COVID symptoms and should seek immediate medical attention if they develop any unusual fatigue, tiredness, breathlessness, chest pain and palpitations. Blood sugars should be monitored regularly,” he said.

  New cases

  Meanwhile, after falling below 200 for the last two days, the number of new cases slightly increased on Thursday when 382 new infections were detected. With this the total number of COVID-19 cases touched 39,41,835. Bengaluru Urban recorded 239 cases. The day’s test positivity rate in the State touched 1.04%.

  With 10 deaths, the State’s toll rose to 39,979. With this, the day’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) touched 2.61%.This is apart from 38 deaths of patients due to non-COVID-19 reasons.

  As many as 689 persons were discharged on Thursday taking the total recoveries to 38,97,928. Active cases reduced to 3,890.

  As many as 36,415 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, including 25,032 RT-PCR tests. With this, the total number of tests rose to 6,46,17,588.