January 19 e Karnataka government has revised procedures for testing, isolation, and quarantine, as the State registered more than 40,000 new cases for the second day in a row.

For the general population, patients in home isolation shall be released after at least 7 days have passed from testing positive and no fever is detected for three preceding and successive days. There is no need for retesting after home isolation. 

All symptomatic patients will be required to compulsorily take a rapid antigen test (RAT), and the RAT negatives will be followed by an RT-PCR test as per ICMR protocol. All primary contacts will be tested including asymptomatics. 

For the healthcare and frontline workers, if the person is symptomatic, they should undergo testing. Asymptomatic and mild symptom patients are recommended five days home isolation. If they are asymptomatic during the preceding three days, they will be released from isolation. 

Karnataka reported 40,499 cases on Wednesday of which 24,135 were reported in Bengaluru. The total active cases in the state now stand at 2,67,650. The positivity rate is at 18.8 per cent and 21 deaths have been registered, out of which five were in Bengaluru. The total number of tests conducted by the state were 2,15,312. 

On restrictions

Basavaraj Bommai, the Chief Minister of Karnataka, said a decision on easing Covid restrictions in the State would be made following a meeting with experts. The meeting is set to take place on Friday).

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