Bengaluru: COVID-19 cases in Karnataka breached the one lakh mark on Monday, as the state reported the biggest single-day spike of 5,324 new infections and 75 fatalities, taking the death toll to 1,953, the health department said.
The day also saw 1,847 patients getting discharged after recovery.
With the fresh infections, a total of 1,01,465 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the state, including 1,953 deaths and 37,685 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.
Out of 5,324 fresh cases reported on Monday, a whopping 1,470 were from Bengaluru urban alone.
The previous biggest single-day spike was recorded on July 26 with 5,199 cases.
This is the fourth consecutive day that the state is reporting over 5,000 fresh cases.
Out of the 61,819 active cases, 61,221 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 598 are in Intensive Care Units.
Twenty six out of 75 deaths reported were from Bengaluru urban, followed by Dakshina Kannada 9, Dharwad 8, Belagavi 6, three each from Ballari and Mysuru, two each from Kalaburagi, Kolara, Raichur, Vijayapura and Bagalkote, and one each from Bengaluru Rural, Davangere, Shivamogga, Hassan, Gadag, Bidar, Uttara Kannada, Koppala, Haveri, and Chikkamagaluru.
Most of the deceased either had a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-like illness (ILI).
Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban accounted for 1,470, Ballari 840, Kalaburagi 631, Mysuru 296, Udupi 225, Dharwad 193, Belagavi 155, Kolar 142, Bengaluru Rural 138, Raichur 120, Dakshina Kannada 119, Vijayapura and Davangere 110, followed by others.
Bengaluru Urban district topped the list of cases with a total of 46,923 infections, followed by Ballari 4,930 and Dakshina Kannada 4,925.
Among discharges Bengaluru urban was on top with 12,189 discharges, followed by Kalabuagi 2,271 and Udupi 2,173.
A total of 12,05,051 samples have been tested so far, out of which 28,224 were tested on Monday alone, the bulletin said.
of the 28,224 samples tested today, 9,708 were rapid antigen tests.
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Bengaluru (PTI): In an effort to end the logjam over the Governor's address that has stalled proceedings for the past week, Karnataka Assembly Speaker U T Khader on Wednesday ruled that legislators should not discuss Thaawarchand Gehlot or his conduct in the house, saying such debates send the wrong message to the public.
The House has witnessed repeated disruptions and adjournments since the session began on January 22 over the issue of the governor's conduct.
During his address to the joint sitting of the Karnataka legislature on January 22, Gehlot read out only three sentences from the 122-paragraph speech prepared by the state government.
The speech included criticism of the Centre for replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajivika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G), portions of which the governor declined to read.
Concluding his address in about two minutes, the governor left the house, triggering a commotion as Congress legislators attempted to gherao him and raised slogans.
While the opposition BJP accused the ruling Congress and its ministers of "insulting" the governor and demanded action, the treasury benches countered by claiming the governor had "insulted the National Anthem by leaving before it was played."
The house again witnessed heated arguments on the issue earlier in the day, leading to adjournment.
During the interruption, Khader held a meeting with ministers and opposition members to resolve the impasse.
When proceedings resumed, the speaker delivered his ruling.
Referring to the events of January 22 and the subsequent debate, Khader said the conduct and discussions had conveyed the wrong message to the public.
"Our conduct as members of this House and the opinions expressed must be in good taste and in accordance with constitutional provisions. They must uphold the dignity of the House and its members. We must introspect in this direction," he said.
He stressed the need for caution to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future.
"Let us end this matter here, continue the discussion on the motion of thanks to the governor, and refrain from discussing the governor or his conduct in this house," the speaker said.
Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka said the house should express regret over what he termed an "insult" to the governor.
Responding, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the situation would not have arisen had the governor read out the entire address.
"Asking the house to express regret is not appropriate. Why did the governor leave even before the National Anthem was played," Siddaramaiah asked.
BJP MLA S Suresh Kumar reminded Siddaramaiah that as Leader of the Opposition in 2011, he had asked then Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj to curtail his address.
Bhardwaj had subsequently placed the address on the table of the house, requesting members to treat it as read.
Siddaramaiah said the situation in January 2011 was different from the present one.
The debate grew intense, leading to another adjournment of the house.
