Since reporting first Covid case, Karnataka's tally goes up to 39.43L

Bengaluru: On this day (March 9) in 2020, Karnataka had reported its first Covid-19 case. In the two years since then, the southern state has reported as many as 39.43 lakh Covid cases and 40,006 deaths, as per the health department statistics.

On Wednesday, the state logged 181 new cases against 222 discharges and two deaths. The positivity rate for the day stood at 0.32 per cent while case fatality rate stood at 1.10 per cent.

Bengaluru city reported 122 Covid cases against 147 discharges, and after a long time, the city didn't report any Covid death.

The state has conducted about 6.5 crore tests so far, with the virus infecting one in every 15 persons. Among the 100 infected persons, one person has died. The first wave of Covid spelled horror, exposed lack of infrastructure, followed by the second and third waves unleashing the deadly Delta and Omicron variants.

Compared to the first wave, the second and third waves infected and caused three times more deaths. Among all the three waves, the second proved to be the most dangerous.

The first case of Covid was detected on March 9, 2020, in a techie who had returned from a foreign country to Bengaluru.

So far, 39.42 lakh cases of Covid have been found, of which 99 per cent have been cured while over 40,000 have lost their lives. Among those infected, 30 lakh persons fall in the age bracket of 20 to 59 years, while 30,000 people above the age of 50 years have succumbed to the deadly virus.

Eight districts of the state have recorded more than one lakh Covid cases. The state is placed third in the country as far as number of infections and death rate is concerned.

The state had reported the highest single-day tally of 50,210 cases on January 23, 2022, after reporting the maximum daily fatalities of 626 on May 23, 2021.