Earlier this week, TNM had reported how even the death rate had decreased in Bengaluru over the past month.
Higher testing capacity compared to other states in the country has apparently helped Karnataka and its capital city Bengaluru have a comparatively lower COVID-19 infection rate. This despite the fact that the daily increase in the burden of cases for both Karnataka and Bengaluru remains high among other states and cities in the country, respectively. Bengaluru has a total of 3,15,559 cumulative positive cases, second only to the national capital Delhi, which has 3,36,750. While Karnataka has the third highest number of cases, followed by Maharashtra (16,09,516) and Andhra Pradesh (7,89,553).
Karnataka has reported an average of 7,612 daily cases during the period October 11-20, which is less than the average of 8,859 daily cases recorded between September 11-20. At the same time, the average daily tests from September 11-20 was 63,528 and from October 11-20 it increased to 99,229.
The same trend can also be observed in the city of Bengaluru. The city registered an average of 3,402 cases per day between September 11 and 20 and remained the same at 3,400 cases daily from October 11 to 20. But here too, the test average, which was close to 25,000 a day, jumped to 46,132.
More importantly, Karnataka officials say the state is doing better in terms of preventing infections, as they are conducting the most RT-PCR tests, while most states are doing more rapid tests based on in antigens.
Although antigen tests are faster and cheaper, they have been shown to give a high number of false negatives.
Karnataka Health Minister Dr. K Sudhakar said the state is carrying out 80% of the total tests with RT-PCR tests.
Earlier this week, TNM had reported that while Bengaluru’s number of daily cases remained the same over the past month, the death rate also improved. The mortality rate, which was at 1.39% on September 16, is 1.15% on October 16. The mortality rate is the number of deaths per 100 positive patients. Experts say that increased testing coupled with increased surveillance can aid early case detection, which in turn helps save lives.
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