Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jan 13: The third wave of Covid has been continuously on high tide. Covid cases in Dakshina Kannada district have seen a quantum leap. The fact that positivity rate has risen to 5.73 on Tuesday, has proved to be a worrying factor for the district.

If the figures for the last one week are taken into account, the infection has been showing an increasing trend every day. Out of the current 1,872 active cases, about 400 are students and others are distributed over different age groups. The officials say that 20 percent of infected persons are students and the remaining 80 percent comprise of different age groups.

However, in most of the positive cases now being witnessed, only mild symptoms are seen and neither the people nor the department are aware of the category of the variant that is flourishing now. The speed of the spread and mild symptoms look like the Omicron variant. The department however, believes that this is not Omicron as Covid has been spreading fast everywhere else in the country.

Dakshina Kannada district health officer Dr Kishore Kumar M, says that Covid cases in the district are spiralling, and 12,000 to 14,000 tests are conducted every day. He said that the earlier notion that students are contributing most for the infection is wrong and that this is spreading through the communities. He added that 90 percent of positive people are in home isolation.

The department is not clear why the infection is rising, other than that similar trend is witnessed elsewhere in the country. Currently, the climate is volatile and therefore fever and cold have become common. The officials concur with the observation that people suffering from cold and fever, if tested, normally test positive for Covid.

On Tuesday, 583 people tested positive for Covid in the district. As many as 94 got discharged from hospitals and 1,872 active cases remain. On a single day, clusters were identified at three places in the district. Eight persons proved positive from the areas where development works are on in the city.