Two more persons succumbed to COVID-19 in the State on Tuesday, taking the toll to 29.

One of them was a 62-year-old woman from Vijayapura, a known case of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and BA (bronchial asthma) admitted on May 3 in the ICU of a designated hospital. The second was a 50-year-old woman from Davangere, a SARI case admitted with the complaint of breathlessness. Both women died of cardiac arrest, said Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar.

As many as 22 new cases were reported, taking the total number of positive cases to 673. While the condition of 306 patients is stable, six are in ICU, the Minister said.

The new cases include 12 from Davangere, three from Bengaluru Urban, two from Bagalkot, and one each from Ballari, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Haveri, and Dharwad. Davangere and Haveri have now become a cause for concern as they were in the orange and green zones, respectively.

In terms of positive cases, Karnataka, which was in third place in March, is now in 13th place. At 3.13%, the average Compounded Growth Rate of positive cases in the State is lower than the national average of 5.97%, the Minister said.

The three cases in Bengaluru Urban include a 30-year-old pregnant woman and a 34-year-old man, a contact of P-420 and a housekeeping staff member of a hotel in Shivajinagar. The third is a 45-year-old man with Influenza-like Illness (ILI).

Meanwhile, the Health Department has issued a circular for districts to adopt a multi-pronged strategy for surveillance of COVID-19. Reporting of ILI and SARI by private healthcare providers has been made mandatory.