Udupi, Dakshina Kannada record 145 Covid-19 positive cases

MANGALURU/UDUPI: Coastal districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada combined to account for 145 out of 378 Covid-19 positive cases that Karnataka recorded overall on Saturday with Udupi accounting for 121 of those cases. The bright side of coastal districts scaling the Covid-19 graph was the discharge of 104 patients post-treatment including 101 in Udupi and rest in DK district. People who returned from Maharashtra contributed to the majority of the 145 cases.
Stressing on the discharge of 101 patients in hale and hearty condition, G Jagadeesha, deputy commissioner, Udupi said 120 out of 121 positive cases in Udupi were its residents and the other case – a person from DK has been referred to authorities there for treatment. “None of the patients in the district are critical, in need of ICU, high flow oxygen or in need of ventilator,” he said adding more patients are line up for discharge in the next two days.
The day’s development saw Udupi still perched on top of the Covid-19 chart with 654 active cases. Jagadeesha told STOI that since Covid-19 testing laboratory adopted the pool testing method, the lab is still saddled with 422 swab samples and the results of these will be known on Sunday. “We should see the last spurt of positive cases as far as the district is concerned once these results come out,” he said. District has thus far discharged 233 patients.
Dr Prashanth Bhat, Covid-19 nodal officer earlier at a Disha meeting that Shobha Karandlaje, Udupi-Chikkamangaluru MP chaired, said an average of 100 patients will be discharged daily post-treatment in the next 72-hours. In all, 98% of the 889 positive cases were asymptomatic. The district collected 12258 samples and reports of 10992 were negative. There has been no recorded case of community transmission in the district thus far, Dr Bhat said.
On the other hand, adjacent Dakshina Kannada recorded 24 positive cases. These included 11 cases from those who had returned from Maharashtra, seven from the United Arab Emirates, and one from Turkey. Authorities are tracing the source of infection of five patients, noted Gayathri Nayak, in-charge of DK district bulletin. The district that recorded 167 positive cases so far has recorded 5 Covid-19 deaths, one non-Covid and one death to liver cirrhosis.