No extension of lockdown in Bengaluru urban, rural districts, confirms K'taka CM's office

Bengaluru, July 20: Amid speculation of another lockdown in Bengaluru to contain the surge of COVID-19 cases, Karnataka Chief Minister's office said that there won't be any extension of lockdown in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts.

''There won't be any extension of lockdown in Bengaluru Urban & Rural districts, CM Yediyurappa confirmed after a marathon meeting with task force officials & with Cabinet colleagues. There would be minute to minute monitoring at ward level in Bengaluru,'' Karnataka Chief Minister's Office said.

The state government had implemented a strict lockdown in Bengaluru on July 15. The restrictions will be effective till 5 am on July 22. With the sudden spike in COVID-19 count, there were speculations that the lockdown is going to be extended for another 15 days.

Earlier, Bengaluru mayor M Goutham Kumar and commissioner of the civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike B H Anil Kumar had favoured the lockdown extension. A 15 day lockdown would be good, as that much time is required to break the chain, they mentioned.

Earlier on Sunday, the state reported 4,120 new COVID-19 cases and 91 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 63,772 and the death toll to 1,331, the Health department said. The day also saw 1,290 patients getting discharged after recovery.

Out of 4,120 fresh cases reported on Sunday, a whopping 2,156 cases were from Bengaluru Urban alone.

Karnataka crossed the 10 lakh tests milestone today from about 88 labs in the state.

As of July 19 evening, cumulatively 63,772 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 1,331 deaths and 23,065 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.

It said, out of 39,370 active cases, 38,791 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 579 are in ICU.

Thirty-six out of 91 deaths reported on Sunday were from Bengaluru Urban, followed by Mysuru (11), Kolar (5), four each from Dharwad, Gadag and Koppal, three each from Ballari, Kalaburagi and Bidar.

Most of the dead are either with a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-like illness (ILI).

Out of 4,120 cases tested positive on Sunday, contacts of the majority of the cases are still under tracing.

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 2,156 cases, followed by Dakshina Kannada (285), Vijayapura (171), Chikkaballapura (135), Udupi (134), Dharwad (126), Mysuru (110) and Shivamogga (104).

Bengaluru Urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 31,777 infections, followed by Dakshina Kannada (3,591) and Kalaburagi (2,743).

Among discharges, Bengaluru Urban tops the list with total 6,793, followed by Kalaburagi (1,771) and Udupi (1,617).

A total of 10,20,830 samples were tested so far, out of which 35,834 were tested on Sunday alone.

As many as 13,054 of the 35,834 samples tested today were rapid antigen tests.