Bengaluru, Feb 2: Karnataka on Wednesday registered a jump in daily infections, as the state reported 20,505 new cases of COVID-19 and 81 fatalities, taking the tally to 38,44,338 and death toll to 39,137.

The state on Tuesday had reported 14,366 fresh infections.

There were 40,903 discharges, taking the total number of recoveries to 36,27,925, a health bulletin said.

Of the new cases, 8,850 were from Bengaluru Urban that saw 21,493 people being discharged and 13 virus-related deaths.

The total number of active cases across the state is now at 1,77,244.

While the positivity rate for the day stood at 12.55 per cent, the case fatality rate (CFR) was 0.39 per cent.

Of the 81 deaths, 13 are from Bengaluru Urban, Dakshina Kannada (10), Mandya and Mysuru (6), Shivamogga and Tumakuru (5), Ballari, Bidar, Kalaburagi and Kolar (4), Udupi and Uttara Kannada (3), followed by others.

After Bengaluru Urban, Mysuru recorded the second highest number of cases with 1,209, Belagavi 1,060, Tumakuru 762, Shivamogga 715, and Dharwad 633.

Bengaluru Urban district now has a total of 17,36,425 cases, Mysuru 2,23,956 and Tumakuru 1,55,904.

According to the bulletin, Bengaluru Urban tops the list among discharges with 16,27,340, followed by Mysuru 2,13,313 and Tumakuru 1,47,494.

Cumulatively, a total of 6,21,59,532 samples have been tested, of which 1,63,320 were on Wednesday alone.

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New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on Thursday slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his reported remark that Pranab Mukherjee, when he was President, had said tribals would turn "anti-national" if there is no "ghar wapsi"Catholic Bishops.'

In a statement issued here, CBCI, a body of Catholic Bishops, referred to reports which said Bhagwat, at an event on Monday, claimed that Mukherjee, while he was President had appreciated ghar wapsi and told him that had it not been for the Sangh's work on reconversion, a section of Adivasis would have turned "anti-national".The CBCI called the report "shocking".

"Fabricated personal conversation being attributed to a former president of India and its posthumous publication with the vested interest of an organization with questionable credibility raises a grave issue of national importance," the CBCI claimed.

"Is it not the violent ghar wapsi program of VHP and other similar organizations, curtailing the exercise of freedom of conscience of economically deprived tribals, the real anti-national activity?" it asked.

'Ghar wapsi' is a term used by the RSS and affiliated organisations to refer to reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, based on the belief that they were originally Hindus before converting to other religions.

The CBCI also questioned why Bhagwat did not speak about it while Mukherjee was alive.

"We, the 2.3 percent of Indian citizens who are Christians feel extremely hurt by such manipulated and motivated propaganda unleashed," it said.

In a post on X following the statement issued by CBCI, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Speak up. This is a start!"

"Bishops body have issued a statement condemning remarks made by Dr Mohan Bhagwat and RSS for defaming the Christian community," he said.

O'Brien added that they should ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi more questions, including why Christmas Day has been turned into "Good Governance Day".

The TMC leader, in a blogpost earlier this month, had said "hard questions" must be asked to the government with regards to the Christian community, including why the FCRA has been 'weaponised', and why has Manipur been 'ignored'.