Karnataka brings changes in COVID rules for hospitals

Dr Sudhakar K, Karnataka‘s health minister, stated in a tweet that all private and government hospitals in Karnataka have been instructed that COVID test reports are no longer required to hospitalise people without symptoms or other medical procedures.

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“All government and private hospitals in the State have been told to suspend precautionary COVID 19 testing of asymptomatic patients before to hospitalisation, operations, scans, and other medical treatments,” said the health minister in a tweet. In the post, he described the order.

Karnataka was one of the states that had a significant increase in COVID cases when India was hit by the third wave, which was driven by the highly infectious coronavirus strain. At the peak of the third wave on January 27, the state had had around 48,000 cases in a single day.

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Bengaluru was one of the main cities in India that had a concerning increase in instances. For a large stretch in January, the state capital logged the bulk of instances in Karnataka.

Omicron, the new strain, spurred states to reinstate limitations in an attempt to control the spread. However, earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised states to revisit the COVID restrictions, citing a decline in daily infections.

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At the peak of the third wave, daily cases in India surpassed 3.48 lakh last month. During the second wave, India recorded a daily total of 4.14 lakh cases.

According to data updated by the health ministry on Wednesday, India recorded 15,102 new COVID-19 cases, 31,377 recoveries, and 278 fatalities in the past 24 hours. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that the number of active cases has fallen below two lakh for the first time in 49 days. Karnataka has 767 new infections.