Karnataka will initiate an audit of deaths due to Covid-19 in a couple of days, said Karnataka Medical Education Minister, K Sudhakar.

On Friday, the State saw 57 deaths reported, taking the total number of deaths so far to 543.

Earlier, in the month of May, the State government had done a preliminary death audit, by a task force of 10 specialist doctors.

“As per the findings, deaths were primarily due to co-morbidity and age-related,” said Sudhakar.

The task force will be studying symptoms of the patients, time of their hospitalisation, co-morbidity and pre-illnesses involved, treatment adopted and the nature of death,” he added.

Rapid antigen test

The rapid antigen test is expected to give out the result in 5-10 minutes and would be carried out at fever clinics, private hospitals, mobile labs and at the patient’s doorstep.

Sudhakar said “Karnataka will be starting rapid antigen test from tomorrow i.e. Saturday. Initially we will be conducting 20,000 tests and later scaling it up.”

“Currently we are to start with one lakh tests in the State of which around 50,000 kits are set aside for Bengaluru and the balance to the rest of the State,” he added.

In Bengaluru, it would scale it up to 50,000 tests in a week’s time.

According to the minister, “We have ordered around 3 lakh test kits and we are expected to add them in time to scale it up.”

Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Commissioner, Department of Health and Family Welfare, said the introduction of rapid antigen test is expected to bring down load on PCR testing labs.

On Friday, the State reported 2,313 new cases, taking the total number of cases to 33,418 of which 19,035 were active cases.

On the discharge front, the day saw 1,003 cases, total discharges stood at 13,836 . Patients in ICU are 472. Of the 2,313 new cases reported in the State, Covid-positive cases continue to mount in Bengaluru, clocking 1,447. The total positive cases in the city stood at 15,329 and active cases were 11,687. On the discharge front, the city reported 601 today and so far 3,435 people have been discharged. Deaths in the city stood at 206.