Karnataka records three deaths in last one week; infecting strain yet to be established

Three COVID-19 deaths reported in Bengaluru after two-month gap; Karnataka records 40,317 deaths, 92 active cases. Health Minister directs 1,500 tests daily & adequate beds & oxygen availability. No restrictions on New Year celebrations yet.

Amid the threat of JN.1, a new mutant strain of SARS-CoV-2 circulating in a few States, Karnataka has recorded three deaths in the last one week. This is after a gap of over two months.

All three deaths have been reported in Bengaluru. However, the infecting strain is yet to be established as the Health Department is awaiting genome sequencing reports of their samples.

Of the three deaths, a 76-year-old male, who was hospitalised for SARI (severe acute respiratory infections), battled the illness for over three months. He was admitted to a private hospital on  September 12 and died due to aspiration pneumonia on December 17.

The other two — a 64-year-old male and another 44-year-old male — who had multiple comorbidities died due to Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS) on December 15 and December 16 respectively.

The last death was reported on October 7 this year in the State. An 80-year-old female resident of Bengaluru, who was diagnosed with SARI, had succumbed to the illness at her residence. Overall, the Health Department has recorded 40,317 COVID deaths so far.

With 20 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the State now has 92 active cases. This is the second highest in the country after Kerala. As many as 808 COVID-19 tests have been done since Tuesday morning, and the test positivity rate (TPR) stands at 2.47%.

Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, who attended the video conference convened by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday, said the 64-year-old resident of Chamrajpet was admitted to a private hospital on December 14 and passed away the next day. “He had hypertension, lung disease, bronchial asthma, pulmonary tuberculosis. He had a heart failure and went into a cardiogenic shock. He also had pneumonia, and COVID-19 was an incidental finding,” he said.