Bengaluru, Jan 22: Karnataka on Saturday reported a substantial dip in its COVID-19 upsurge with 42,470 fresh infections, which was about 5,500 cases less than Friday's tally, the health department said.

However, the fatalities increased from 22 on Friday to 26 today, taking the death toll due to 38,563, the health department said.

The state had recorded 48,049 fresh infections on Friday.

In its bulletin, the department said 35,140 people were discharged, pushing the total number of recoveries to 30,98,432. Active cases stood at 3,30,447.

The dip in cases was due to reduction in infections in Bengaluru urban to 17,266 from 29,068 on Friday.

Other districts reported fresh cases including 4,601 in Mysuru, 3,417 in Tumakuru, 2,679 in Hassan, 1,822 in Mandya, 1,417 in Kolar and 958 in Bengaluru Rural district.

There were zero fatalities in 17 districts.

The positivity and case fatality rates for the day were at 19.33 per cent and 0.06 per cent, respectively.

A total of 2,19,699 samples were tested in the state including 1,70,637 RT-PCR tests on Saturday, taking the cumulative number of specimens examined to 6.33 crore.

There were 1,79,816 inoculations done, taking the total vaccinations so far to 9.31 crore, the department said.

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Berhampur (Odisha) (PTI): Two girls drowned while bathing in a village pond in Odisha's Ganjam district on Tuesday, police said.

The deceased were identified as Pranjali Dora (11), a class 6 student, and Manini Dora (12), a student of class 7, both residents of Patanda village in Digapahandi police station area, a police officer said.

After returning home from school, they went to the village pond to take a bath like every other day. However, they slipped and fell into deep waters. Locals noticed them drowning and tried to rescue them but failed, he said.

Fire brigade personnel from Digapahandi retrieved the girls after a two-hour search and they were rushed to a nearby community health centre, where doctors declared them dead, Digapahandi police station officer-in-charge Kishor Kumar Samal said.

He said the bodies have been handed over to the respective families after conducting post-mortem examinations at MKCG Medical College and Hospital here.

He said unnatural death cases have been registered and an investigation launched.