Karnataka crosses 50,000 mark with record 4,169 new Covid-19 cases

Bengaluru, July 17: With 4,169 new Covid-19 infections, Karnataka on Thursday has crossed the 50,000 mark and reported 104 deaths. The death toll crossed 1,000-mark.

The number of active cases also breached the 30,000 mark with 30,655 active cases.

There have been 19,729 discharges so far.

539 patients are in the ICU with Bengaluru alone accounting for 317 patients needing intensive care.

Dakshina Kannada reported 238 new cases. 176 in Dharwad, 144 in Vijayapura, 130 in Mysuru, 123 in Kalaburagi, 113 in Udupi and 101 in Raichur were among the worst affected.

Meanwhile, Bengaluru on Thursday reported 2,344 cases, raising its tally to 25,288, out of which 18,828 are active.

The capital city accounts for half of all fatalities in the state with 508 people dead, including a record 70 on Thursday.

Out of Thursday's new cases, 1,426 were males and 918 were females.

Meantime, the number of containment zones in Bengaluru has shot up to 7,053 from 4,616 four days ago.

At least 21 wards in Bengaluru recorded over 20 cases each on Thursday, BBMP statistics revealed.

According to BBMP's Covid-19 War Room data, Shantala Nagar topped the list with 139 cases, followed by Hemmigepura (33), Basavanagudi (32), and Agrahara Dasarahalli (26), among others.

Meanwhile, the number of active containment zones in the city comprising 198 wards rose to 5,598.

The health department also attributed 70 more deaths that took place over the last few days to Bengaluru's death toll on Thursday. With this, 507 deaths have been reported cumulatively from the city.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Friday started rapid antigen tests in eight zones across the city.

The rapid antigen tests initiative was inaugurated by Bengaluru Mayor M Goutham Kumar at the BBMP head office. According to the Mayor, the test will be conducted in the containment zones, slums, and in the areas where more ILI and SARI cases are reported.

The BBMP has partnered with cab aggregator Ola to visit the containment zones to conduct rapid antigen tests. According to a state health department official, rapid-antigen test is an easy and cheaper method as compared to the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.