At over 58,000 Covid discharges, Karnataka tops list in country

BENGALURU: Karnataka on Tuesday saw a whopping 58,395 Covid patients being discharged, which significantly brought down active cases across the state from over six lakh to 5,75,028. While this is by far the highest number of discharges per day in the state, it is also the largest for any state in the country, with Maharashtra at number two at 52,898 discharges. As a result, Karnataka’s recovery rate jumped from 72.08 per cent on Monday to 73.68 per cent on Tuesday.

The state’s recovery rate has been improving consistently since May 8, except for two days on May 9 and 11, when it was lower than the previous day’s percentage. Since May 12, the rate has improved on all consecutive days. While active cases fell from 6,03,639 to 5.75 lakh across the state, it fell from 3,64,382 to 3,40,965 in Bengaluru.

The city’s recovery rate, too, has been increasing over the last three days, and between May 16 and 18, it has moved from 64.71 per cent to 67.29 per cent. Despite these encouraging figures, the mortality remained high with 525 patients reported dead on Tuesday, taking the state’s Covid toll to 22,838, up from 22,313 on Monday. Tuesday’s deaths are also the thirdhighest single-day deaths through the pandemic, the highest being 596 on May 10 and the second highest being 592 on May 7.

Karnataka’s mortality rate now 1 pc

The mortality rate climbed to 1 per cent on Tuesday after having dipped to well below that point for a few days. Karnataka’s Covid tally since the pandemic broke out on March 8 last year touched 22,72,374, up from 22,42,065 the previous day, while the positivity rate increased from 8.01 per cent on Monday to 8.09 per cent. The positivity rate had dipped to as low as 4.63 per cent on April 4, but the massive surge with the second wave has forced it to rise sharply.

Bengaluru’s Covid tally stands at 10,73,072 cases (10,64,396 on Monday), with 298 deaths, taking the mortality rate from 0.91 per cent to 0.93 per cent. Tuesday also recorded Bengaluru’s third highest deaths in a single day. The city also saw 8,676 new cases, while 31,795 people were discharged in a single day.