New cases of COVID-19 maintained an upward trajectory on Sunday in the southern States, with considerable numbers in the bigger cities. Kerala reported 1,875 new cases, Karnataka 1,715, Tamil Nadu 1,289 and Andhra Pradesh 368. In Telangana there were 394 cases on Saturday.
Karnataka’s Health Minister K. Sudhakar said the State was “at the beginning of the second wave” of COVID-19 and sought people’s cooperation to contain the spread.
The Minister said the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on the pandemic had given clear guidelines and warned of serious consequences if certain activities were not controlled.
“We have crossed 1,000 cases a day just in Bengaluru. My fervent request to people is to adopt COVID-19-appropriate behaviour,” he said, appealing to youth to ensure that the elderly in their households were vaccinated. People should also keep away from unnecessary gatherings, whether parties or jatras. The government had not banned any activity so that people’s livelihood was not affected, while requesting people to exercise caution, he said.
The TAC had suggested closing religious institutions and all schools and educational institutions where there were no exams going on, for at least two weeks.
Across Karnataka, 1,715 new COVID-19 cases were detected, taking the total to 9,70,202. Bengaluru Urban district accounted for 1039. Two patients – one each in Bengaluru Urban and Bidar – succumbed to the virus.
Among the 13,493 active cases, 137 patients were in ICUs. The positivity rate for the day stood at 1.68%, while the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) was 0.11%. From 94,043 tests done on Saturday the testing figure rose to 1,01,840 on Sunday, including 95,959 RT-PCR tests.
On Sunday 11,948 people were vaccinated including 7,933 aged above 60.
Kerala reported 1,875 new cases from 44,675 samples.
The addition of 13 new deaths which took place in the past few days to the official list of COVID-19 fatalities on Sunday took the State’s cumulative toll to 4,495.
The number of the critically ill in ICUs came down to 444 on Sunday, an official report said.
Among districts, Kozhikode reported the maximum of 241 new cases.
Andhra Pradesh reported 368 new infections on Sunday but no death. The new cases pushed the tally to 8,93,734. The number of active cases too increased to 2,188.
The daily test positivity rate was 1.18%, with 31,138 samples tested.
After Chittoor, Guntur was witnessing a surge in daily infections. It reported 79 infections in one day.
In Telangana, 394 coronavirus cases were recorded on Saturday.
While 64,898 samples were tested, results of 698 were awaited. Three more COVID-19 patients died.
The 394 new cases include 81 from Greater Hyderabad region and 64 from Rangareddy.
Compared to February and first week of March this year, a large chunk of infections was detected in rural districts. On March 16 and 17, cases from districts exceeded those in Greater Hyderabad because of school and hostel clusters.
The death toll stood at 1,669.
Tamil Nadu reported 1,289 fresh cases with five districts – Chennai, Chengalpattu, Coimbatore, Thanjavur and Tiruvallur – accounting for 66%.
Fresh COVID-19 infections have been slowly and steadily increasing across the State, with the number of districts clocking fewer than 10 cases each declining. On Sunday, 12 districts had fewer than 10 cases each.
In Chennai, it was 466 fresh positive cases, followed by 138 in Chengalpattu and 109 in Coimbatore. Thanjavur and Tiruvallur recorded 73 and 72 cases respectively. There were 35 cases in Tiruppur, 32 in Kancheepuram, 27 in Salem, 26 in Tiruvarur, 22 each in Dindigul and Madurai, and 21 in Tiruchi.
The new cases included nine returnees – two each from Jharkhand, Karnataka and Kerala, and one each from UAE, Odisha and West Bengal.
In 24 hours, 75,258 samples were tested.
Nine more persons succumbed to the infection, taking the toll to 12,599. Chengalpattu, Chennai, Kancheepuram, Nagapattinam, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruvallur, Tirunelveli and Vellore reported one fatality each.
Active cases rose to 7,903 with Chennai accounting for 2,985. The city, along with Chengalpattu, Coimbatore, Tiruvallur and Thanjavur, accounted for 68% of the active cases.
(With inputs from Vijayawada, Hyderabad & Chennai)