The spike in cases has deepened the oxygen crisis in certain parts of Karnataka. (FILE)
Karnataka yet again reported more than 40 thousand COVID-19 cases in a single day with 44,631 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total caseload to 16,90,934, the state health department said on Tuesday. Bengaluru - with over three lakh (3,01,712) active cases - alone accounted for 20,870 of these infections, it said.
Karnataka has 4,64,363 active cases and its positivity rate stands at 29.03 per cent. The state had reported 44,438 cases on Monday.
As many as 292 people died in the last 24 hours, taking the total fatalities to 16, 538. Bengaluru saw 132 coronavirus-related deaths in a day.
The IT city, whose hospitals have been stretched to bursting point with most having not a single ICU bed available, is reporting over 100 deaths daily ever since the second wave of COVID hit the country.
The spike in cases has deepened the oxygen crisis in certain parts of Karnataka, including the state capital with hospitals openly raising concern over the gap in oxygen supply.
On Monday, at least three hospitals indicated that they were short of oxygen - two of them eventually received the supply.
The Karnataka government, earlier in the day, decided to treat journalists as frontline Covid warriors and inoculate them on a priority basis.
"We will treat journalists as frontline workers and vaccinate them on a priority basis," Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said after a special cabinet meeting to control the growing covid cases in the state.
Karnataka is among ten states that account for 71.71 per cent of the 3,57,229 new COVID-19 cases in the country, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
The ministry said that Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases followed by Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.