Karnataka: Over 23,000 new Covid-19 cases in record daily spike, as fresh restrictions take effect

Active caseload too witnessed a significant spike of 17,030 cases and currently stands at 176,188 from the 159,158 reported on Tuesday.

Karnataka on Wednesday reported 23,558 new infections of the coronavirus disease, the state’s highest ever spike in a 24-hour time span. So far, 1,222,202 people have tested positive in the state. Also, 116 new patients succumbed to the disease, which pushed the death toll to 13,762, a bulletin from the state health department showed.

Medical workers in Karnataka tested 152,281 samples for the disease on the day. In picture - Swab tests for Covid-19 conducted at City Railway Station, in Bengaluru. (ANI)

Earlier in the day, the Union ministry of health and family welfare red-flagged Karnataka as one among the five states of concern, along with Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Kerala. Daily new cases in Karnataka have remained upwards of 20,000 cases for the second consecutive day. Earlier on Tuesday, 21,794 new cases were reported.

The fresh spike in daily new infections comes as a new set of Covid-19 related restrictions came into effect in the state from 9pm on Wednesday and would remain until 6am on May 4.

Active caseload too witnessed a significant spike of 17,030 cases and currently stands at 176,188 from the 159,158 reported on Tuesday. It crossed the 100,000 mark on April 16 when 107,315 active cases were reported. Meanwhile, 6,412 people were discharged on the day which pushed the total recoveries to 1,032,233 and the recovery rate to 84.45 per cent, the bulletin showed.

Medical workers in the state tested 152,281 samples for the disease on the day, consisting 16,899 Rapid Antigen Detection tests and 135,382 RT PCR and other tests, the bulletin showed. This took the total samples tested so far to 24,016,635, the bulletin also showed.

Bengaluru Urban contributed the maximum to the daily new cases on Wednesday with 13,640 cases. It continues to remain the worst affected district in the state with 583,675 cases detected so far and 124,894 active cases, the highest in the state. Also, 5,382 fatalities have been reported in the state so far. However, the state also leads the list of districts with maximum vaccination coverage and recoveries. While 453,398 patients have recovered so far, 1,167,479 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered as of 3.30pm on the day, the bulletin showed.

Earlier on Tuesday, the state government announced that a night curfew and a weekend curfew would be implemented across the state with limited exemptions.

Under the state’s Covid-19 vaccination drive, 7,460,493 doses of the vaccine have been administered to beneficiaries so far with no severe or serious adverse effects following immunisation (AEFI) reported, the bulletin showed.