K'taka: 24 districts have over 20% positivity rate; Bengaluru 28.8%

BENGALURU: The districts continue to reel under the Covid-19 surge. Official data shows that around 65 per cent of the new cases in Karnataka are being reported from outside the tech capital.
In the May 6-12 period, 24 districts had a positivity rate of more than 20 per cent, apart from Bengaluru. Positivity rate refers to the number of people being diagnosed with the infection per 100 tests. Uttara Kannada and Ballari districts had rates of 38 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively, as against the state’s average rate of 27.24 per cent. Bengaluru’s figure during the period was 29 per cent.
So, are Covid-19 cases beginning to plateau in Bengaluru? Senior officials of the health department offered a cautious assessment. “Everything depends on the data that is presented. The lockdown may have slowed the spread of the virus in the city. But what is alarming is that the Covid count is spiralling outside Bengaluru,” said an official.
Infections are climbing rapidly outside Bengaluru, and they have started putting a strain on the rural healthcare system, which lacks resources. The spike is linked to the movement of people from the state capital to their hometowns, authorities’ failure to promptly ramp up testing and containment efforts, village fairs, large weddings, residents’ disregard for basic safety precautions, and vaccine hesitancy.
Opposition parties allege that the government’s Bengaluru-centric Covid management and underreporting of actual cases had led to the current situation. Congress member and former minister MB Patil gave the example of his home district, Vijayapura. “Earlier this year, around 4,000 tests were being conducted daily in the district. Cases have increased now, but the number of RT-PCR tests has been reduced to 1,600 per day. It’s the same in Belagavi district, where daily tests have reduced from 6,000 to 2,500. Many people with Covid symptoms are not subjected to tests, and this is unfortunate,” he said.
The spread of coronavirus in rural areas is evident from the number of infections in Uttara Kannada, Kodagu and Hassan districts, which are not densely populated. In the past seven days, Hassan has reported around 10,000 cases, while Uttara Kannada and Kodagu have recorded 5,000 and 4,000 cases, respectively. In Tumakuru district, 48,000 people are in home quarantine. While the state’s case fatality rate in the past seven days has been around 1 per cent, Haveri, Ballari and Shivamogga saw their rate crossing 1.5 per cent.
The state government has now turned its attention towards places outside Bengaluru and is revising its treatment protocols, apart from augmenting the medical infrastructure. On Saturday, the Covid ministerial task force headed by deputy chief minister CN Ashwath Narayan decided to set up isolation facilities in rural areas, so patients don’t end up spreading the infection in their families.