Karnataka state capital Bengaluru reported over 17,000 cases on Saturday, the highest ever one-day surge. The state reported nearly 30,000 fresh COVID cases and 208 deaths in the last 24 hours. As per government data, the positivity rate is at 15.52 per cent and the fatality rate at 0.7 per cent.
The state presently has 2.3 lakh active cases, while the capital city has over 1.6 lakh active cases.
"There are two main strategies. First, we need to reduce the number of cases and that will happen only by a stringent lockdown for at least 14 days. And second, we should expand the bed capacity by taking as much as possible beds from all private medical colleges, nursing homes and hospitals," Giridhar Babu of the Public Health Foundation of India said.
The Karnataka technical advisory committee on Covid has also requested the state to impose strict restrictions and lockdown for two weeks. Currently, the state has imposed night and weekend curfews. Meanwhile, the city has been faced with a shortage of medical oxygen as cases continue to rise.