Covid-19: Faced with an influx, North Karnataka is testing more than state average

BENGALURU: A dozen districts in North Karnataka, which together account for 1,451 of the state’s 3,221 Covid-19 cases until Sunday, have been seeing a massive spike in infections from the second week of May, coincidentally when Karnataka began issuing passes for inter-state returnees.

In fact, five of these districts account for 80% of the total number of cases reported on Sunday in the state.

Raichur had the highest at 83, followed by Yadgir (44), Bidar (33), Kalaburagi (28) and Vijayapura (26). The number of cases on Sunday alone in these 12 districts — Yadgir, Kalaburagi, Raichur, Bidar, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Ballari, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Koppal — accounted for 16% of their total cases.

As on Sunday, the cases in these districts account for 45% of the total number of cases, and 51% (1,005) of the total number of active cases (1,950) in the state.

While experts and government officials say the primary reason for this is the increasing number of returnees, especially from Maharashtra, government data accessed by TOI also shows that many of these districts have also been testing far more samples than the rest of the state.

Data from the state Covid War Room shows that while 3,990 and 3,509 tests per million people were carried out in Raichur and Bidar respectively in the last 10 days, it was only 1,217 and 486 in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts (see graphic).

Seven of the 12 north Karnataka districts have tested more than the state average, which stood at 1,506.

Dr MK Sudharshan, chairman, Karnataka Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19, said: “Of course, more number of tests will increase the probability of positive cases, but it also indicates that most of these people are carrying the virus.”

However, data from the government shows that barring Yadgir and Belagavi, the infectivity rate in all other north Karnataka districts, as on Sunday, remained the same as that of the state average, or lower.

Further, in the last five days, six of the 12 districts have reported an average compounded daily growth rate that’s higher than the Karnataka average. While it was 6% in Karnataka, the figure was 18.5% in Haveri, 15.2% in Raichur, 13.8% in Yadgir, 10% in Koppal, 8.9% in Bidar and 6.5% in Kalaburagi.

“While it is a fact that northern districts -- which are the ones that send out labourers and the working class to cities like Mumbai and Hyderabad -- are seeing a more number of returnees, even places like Bengaluru are seeing people return. But testing has surely increased in the northern districts,” another official said.

Sudharshan, while defending the decision to conduct more tests in those districts, said that the concern should not be about the number of cases, but the number of deaths. “If you look at the number of deaths, I think these districts have done well so far. But, as the influx of people increases, we may see a stress on infrastructure, which we need to strategize about,” Sudharshan said.