COVID-19 cases cross 40,000 mark in Karnataka, 73 deaths reported

COVID-19 infections in Karnataka breached the 40,000 mark on Monday as the state reported 2,738 fresh cases and 73 related fatalities, taking the death toll to 757, the health department said.

The day also saw a record 839 patients getting discharged after recovery. Out of 2,738 fresh infections reported on Monday, a whopping 1,315 cases were from Bengaluru urban alone.

As of July 13 evening, cumulatively 41,581 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the state,which includes 757 deaths and 16,248 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.

It said that out of 24,572 active cases, 24,027 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 545 are in Intensive Care Units.

Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said about 75 per of the 757 deaths were due to non-COVID-19 reasons and the remaining due to coronavirus and added that the government would come out with a public document on each death.

"Many have fear about death due to COVID. The mortality rate in the state is 1.82 per cent and 1.63 per cent in Bengaluru. I read media reports about increasing deaths due to COVID, but all are not. We are getting death audit done," he told reporters here.

The Minister said information received from an expert committee revealed that about 60 to 75 per cent of the deaths were due to non COVID reasons.

"If a terminally ill cancer patient tests COVID positive, his or her death is occurring a few months earlier than expected. Similarly, there are death cases who had kidney failure, liver failure and heart related ailments, among others," he said.

Forty three of the 73 deaths reported on Monday were from Bengaluru, six from Mysuru, also those from Shivamogga, Kodagu, Uttara Kannada, Dharwad, Hassan, Haveri, Bagalkote, Belagavi, Hassan and Gadag.

Of the deceased, 48 were men and 24, women.

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

Among the districts where new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban accounted for 1,315 cases, followed by Yadgir 162, Mysuru 151, Dakshina Kannada 131, Ballari 106, Kalaburagi 89, Vijayapura 86, Shivamogga 74, Dharwad 71, and the rest, among others.

Bengaluru urban district topped the list of cases, with 19,702 infections, followed by Dakshina Kannada 2,353 and Kalaburagi 2,192.

Among discharges Bengaluru urban topped with 4,328 discharges, followed by Kalabuagi 1,506 and Udupi 1,269. A total of 8,56,148 samples have been tested so far, of which 17,074 were tested on Monday alone, the bulletin said. So far 7,93,561 samples have reported negative, out of which 13,952 tested negative today.