North Karnataka, coastal district Covid cases cut state’s doubling rate by half

BENGALURU: Recording a large number of Covid-19 cases in a short span of time, coastal and North Karnataka districts like Udupi, Kalaburagi, Raichur, Vijayapura, Yadgir and Haveri have reduced Karnataka’s doubling rate by half in just a month.
As on May 4, it took about 18 days for cases to double in Karnataka. It now stands at nine. That the absolute numbers are much higher than those in May adds to the concern.
Seven districts — Udupi, Kalaburagi, Raichur, Vijayapura, Yadgir, Haveri and Ramanagara — have doubling rates which are lower than the state average, ranging between two and eight days. On the other hand, rates in districts like Mysuru (53), Bagalkot (32) and Bengaluru Urban (20) are more than double of Karnataka’s average.
Experts said the increasing number of cases — expected in the post-lockdown scenario — has caused a massive spike in some of the districts, affecting the state average. In fact, nationally, Karnataka is now among states with a doubling rate lower than the national average of 16. While Goa, Tripura, Assam, Haryana and Chhattisgarh fare worse than Karnataka, in Uttarakhand, Puducherry and Jharkhand, it takes the same number of days for cases to double as in Karnataka.
However, barring Haryana and Uttarakhand, the total number of cases in these other states is much lower than in Karnataka. “But if you look at the positivity rate, Karnataka is still better than the national average, at just 1%,” a senior official said.
Also, with the influx of people returning from different states, Karnataka is testing more samples than in May, which is resulting in a higher number of daily cases. As of June 8, Karnataka is conducting more than 6,000 tests per million (TPM), compared to about 1,000 as on May 4.
Jammu and Kashmir, with 16,884 TPM has the best testing rate, followed by Delhi (14,736), Andhra Pradesh (9,158), Tamil Nadu (7,994) and Rajasthan (7,206). Karnataka is in the sixth place with 6,095 TPM.