The Omicron variant of the Coronavirus seems to be spreading across Bengaluru, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said Monday.
He said 287 new Omicron cases were confirmed in Bengaluru, taking the tally of the new variant to 766.
Experts in Karnataka expect that the state may witness coronavirus infections touching the peak on January 25 before coming down gradually.
"The experts are of the opinion that the Covid cases may reach the peak on January 25, after which it will gradually decrease. They were also of the view that the state should reduce testing from over two lakh a day to about 1.5 lakh as it does not help much," Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka said Monday.
The minister added that the decision on extending the weekend curfew would be taken in the next emergency meeting to be chaired by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai Friday. He, however, ruled out any possibility of lockdown in the state.
Meanwhile, the virus is fast spreading to the districts. The Covid-19 test positivity rate in half of Karnataka’s 30 districts is in double digits with more than three reporting between 22% and 25%, while four others have more than 15%. Even the district with the lowest positivity rate has more than 2. 5%.
With a record number of tests conducted in the past few days, the number of fresh cases has nearly doubled in just three days, while infection among those under 20 years has more than doubled.
