Review panel as Bengaluru accounts for over 60% of Karnataka’s Covid-19 cases

A coordination committee of eight Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, along with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike commissioner, administrator and officials, has been formed to review the Covid-19 situation.

Authorities in Karnakata’s Bengaluru, which is witnessing a surge in the cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), have constituted a panel to review the situation and take action to control the rise in infections, news agency ANI reported on Monday. ANI said a coordination committee of eight Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, along with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike commissioner, administrator and officials, has been formed.

A health worker takes a swab sample from a man for the Covid-19 test, at Kempegowda bus stand in Bengaluru.(PTI)

The Bengaluru Urban area accounts for 2,004 of the more than 3,082 Covid-19 cases, which came after a gap of about four months, the state recorded on Sunday, news agency PTI cited an official as saying. The cumulative caseload in the state stands at 987,000 and the death toll stood at 12,504. Bengaluru Urban also headed the list in the number of deaths, accounting for seven deaths of the 12 fatalities on Sunday.

Dr K Sudhakar, minister for health and medical education, said that the situation was alarming and the state was taking all the necessary precautions to curb the spread of the coronavirus infection. "Karnataka is also seeing a steep surge. In 30 days, I can see almost 10 times more than in the initial days of March. We saw only 300 cases on March 1, March 2 and March. But by the end of March we are seeing almost 3,000 cases, predominantly in Bengaluru itself," he said.

Although he added that despite the rise in cases, lockdown or curfew measures will not be taken in the state. "We need to inhibit, regulate certain activities for sure. Any form of congregation whether religious or political should be discouraged irrespective of caste, creed, religion, politics - because this is the only way forward," he said.

Out of the eight states that accounted for 84.5 per cent of the 68,020 new Covid-19 cases reported in India on Monday, Karnataka stood at the second position, only after Maharashtra. India's active caseload reached 5,21,808 on Monday which constituted 4.33 per cent of the total infections. The cumulative recoveries stood at 11,355,993 as 32,231 recoveries were added in the day. 291 deaths were reported which took the death toll to 161,843.