Karnataka will conduct 1 lakh Covid-19 tests daily to stop '2nd wave'

Authorities have been so far conducting between 60,000 and 75,000 Covid-19 tests per day -- with 68,469 tested on Monday comprising 61,984 RT-PCR tests and the remaining 6,485 rapid antigen tests.

Karnataka will now carry out 1,00,000 Covid-19 tests daily, stepping up the state's testing, tracking mechanism, the state health department told news agency ANI on Wednesday adding that this is being done to ‘prevent and mitigate’ a second wave of the virus. Authorities have been so far conducting between 60,000 and 75,000 Covid-19 tests per day -- with 68,469 tested on Monday comprising 61,984 RT-PCR tests and the remaining 6,485 rapid antigen tests.

Karnataka has been adding more than 900 cases from the past three days. (Reuters file photo)

This announcement by the Karnataka health department comes two days after chief minister BS Yedyiruppa chaired a meeting with senior officials, health experts and members of the Covid technical advisory to review the overall situation in the state.

Quoting experts, Yediyurappa said there were indications of a second wave and the state has been advised stringent enforcement measures to combat the spread of the outbreak. He also made RT-PCR negative test report mandatory for people arriving in Karnataka through Maharashtra and Kerala. The chief minister further urged people to adhere to all Covid-related measures to avoid another lockdown in the state.

Karnataka on Tuesday registered 1,135 fresh cases of the Covid-19 disease and six more related fatalities, pushing the caseload and death toll to over 962,000 and 12,403, respectively, according to the health department’s bulletin. As many as 940,489 people have recovered so far while active cases have gone up to 9428, the bulletin showed.

Tuesday’s case count has been the highest in nearly three months - 1,005 new cases were seen on December 24, 2020. Bengaluru urban contributed the highest towards the fresh cases (710), followed by Mysuru (58), Dakshina Kannada (50) and Kalaburagi (46). The state has been adding more than 900 cases from the past three days.

According to a report by Hindustan Times on March 16, experts and lawmakers have attributed the recent surge in Karnataka’s cases to large public gatherings with no attention paid towards safety norms such as wearing face masks/coverings and maintaining social distancing. More than 33,000 people have been fined across the state for not following the above safety norms of which 11,624 have been fined in Bengaluru itself, the report said.