BENGALURU: Karnataka and Bengaluru broke single-day cases record for the second consecutive day as the overall infections in the state breached the 11-lakh mark on Thursday, while the number of cases in April surpassed 1 lakh.
On Thursday, the state saw 14,738 cases, including 10,497 in Bengaluru - both records - while 66 new deaths took the total to 13,112. Bengaluru reported 30 of the 66 deaths and has 4,963 of the total deaths.
As many as 3,591 people were reported as recovered on Thursday across Karnataka pushing the total recoveries to 9.9 lakh. In Bengaluru, more than 4.3 lakh people have recovered so far and 1,807 on Thursday. The state has a total of 11,09,650 (5,12,521 in the capital) cases of which 96,561 are under treatment. Bengaluru accounts for 74% of the patients.
With 15 more days to go, April has already become the month with the fourth highest cases since the outbreak in March 2020. While the first 15 days of this month have seen 1,12,646 cases, the months of August, September and October 2020 saw more than 2 lakh each. July 2020 also had more than 1 lakh cases, but the number was lower than what's reported so far this month.
Tracking, tracing, testing to be increased
While CM Yediyurappa has already hinted at more curbs post April 17, health minister K Sudhakar on Thursday said the number of beds reserved for Covid at government facilities in Bengaluru will be increased while warning private hospitals of serious action if they fail to reserve 50% of the beds.
Health officials said the government will step up tracking and tracing of contacts and the number of tests to combat the second wave.