A state health department bulletin said as of 5:00 PMon April 22, cumulatively 427 COVID-19 positive cases havebeen confirmed in the state.
The figure includes 17 deaths and 131 patientsdischarged.
It said out of 279 active cases, 274 patientsincluding a pregnant woman are in isolation at designatedhospitals and their condition is stable.
Five patients are in the intensive care unit.
The new cases confirmed include a four-month-oldinfant from Kalaburagi.
The fresh cases include five from Kalaburagi and twoeach from Bengaluru urban and Nanjanagudu in Mysuru.
Seven are contacts of COVID-19 positive patients,while the other two are having a history of Severe AcuteRespiratory Infection (SARI).
Nine out of 427 cases detected and confirmed inKarnataka are transit passengers of Kerala, it said.
From across the state most number of infections havebeen reported in Bengaluru urban with 91 cases, followed byMysuru 88 and Belagavi 43.
Out of total 129 patients discharged so far, maximum48 are from Bengaluru, 33 from Mysuru and 11 from DakshinaKannada.
Among the dead four each are from Bengaluru urbanand Kalaburagi, two each from Chikkaballapura and Vijayapura,and one each from Belagavi, Bagalkote, Gadag, Dakshina Kannadaand Tumakuru.
A total of 29,512 samples have been tested, of which3,279 were tested on Wednesday alone.
So far 25,424 samples have reported negative, 3,202alone on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka government has announcedpartial relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown norms in thestate allowing IT and IT enabled services to operate withessential minimum staff and also certain constructionactivities, manufacturing of packaging materials, courierservices, among others, from April 23.
"IT and IT enabled Services will be allowed to operatewith essential minimum staff only. Rest to work from home,"the government said.
The activities will be permitted only outside theCOVID-19 containment zones identified by the government.
Service provided by self-employed people likeelectrician, IT repair, plumbers, motor mechanics, andcarpenters in local areas have also been given exemption.
To mitigate hardship to the public, selectadditional activities have been allowed which will come intoeffect from 00.00 hours of April 23, Chief Secretary TM VijayBhaskar said in an order.
However, these additional activities will beoperationalised by District Administrations and BBMP (in thecase of Bengaluru city) based on strict compliance to theguidelines on lockdown measures, it said.
Confronted by financial problems, the stategovernment has been eager to kickstart economic activities inthe state that had come to halt due to COVID-19 lockdown.
While hospitality services, bars, malls, theatres,shopping complexes, religious and places of worship amongothers will continue to remain shut, relaxation has been foractivities that are linked to essential services such ashealth, infrastructure and agriculture.
The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) hasrequested that the state surveillance officers formulate dataprivacy norms.
Personally identifiable data may be shared withdiscretion and strict privacy should be ensured.
The state health and family welfare director hasissued circular to districts to give relaxation on COVID-19duty for pregnant women and those mothers having children lessthan one year old and they may be assigned for other officeduties.
The director has also issued another notificationstating that Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severely AcuteRespiratory Illness (SARI) cases,which have got similarsymptoms of COVID-19, should be screened at the initial stagesso that morbidity and mortality due to the virus can bearrested in the community.
The director issued circulars to all districts toprovide treatment to non-coronavirus patients at hospitalsempanelled under Arogya Karnataka Aysushman Bharat scheme, asmost district hospitals have been recognised asCOVID-19 hospitals.
Minister Suresh Kumar, the spokesperson for COVID-19in the state, said in response to a question that number ofcontainment zones in the state as notified by DeputyCommissioners including BBMP was 337.
"In addition today 22 more containment zones is beingnotified, taking the total to 359 in Karnataka," he added.
The health department has issued a circular toconduct COVID-19 test for journalists, the minister said.
Kumar said, "1000 journalists in Bengaluru will betested, 200 per day at C V Raman Hospital in the city." KSU BNWELCOME BNWELCOME