This is the state which saw the country’s first Covid-19 fatality on 10 March. One month later, the state has been comparatively successful in containing the spread of the virus. It stands 21st in its average growth rate at 5.7 per cent while the national average is 13.5 per cent.

Even in terms of its mortality rate, the number of deaths stands at seven and is the lowest among the top 10 states.

The seventh fatality has been reported from Kalaburgi itself and the victim was a contact of a person who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi. Districts like Dakshina Kannada have reported no positive cases in the last nine days, while the cluster at Nanjangud in Mysuru is being scrutinised effectively.

As minister Suresh Kumar, spokesperson on matters relating to Covid-19, explained on Thursday, at 2.5 per cent, the state’s ‘positivity rate’, which is the number of positive cases divided by total tested, is much lower than that of Maharashtra (5.53), Tamil Nadu (11.52) as well as Kerala (2.63).



Up until 13 April, Bengaluru saw 27 out of 77 patients discharged, Mysuru has 10 out of 48 discharged, while Dakshina Kannada saw seven out of 12 being discharged, and in Chikaballapur, six out of the total nine have returned home.

There are many things the state has done right and at the right time which are helping it curb the spread of the virus — be it sealing borders in time, or enforcing strict lockdown across the state, permitting no vehicular movement as well as hyper monitoring suspected cases even in remote rural corners. It is being called the 3T model of ‘trace, test, treat’.

As the first Covid-19 fatality from Kalaburgi was announced, panic spread across the state. As cases of common cold and fever were also rising, most people, especially in cities like Bengaluru, wanted to undergo tests.

But the way the state sprung into action explains a lot about the way it has been able to put up such a strong fight against coronavirus.

As soon as the fatality occurred, the state invoked the provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, becoming the first state to do so. For the Kalaburgi case had turned into a contact tracing nightmare with the patient having travelled all the way to Hyderabad and back.

Taking charge of the situation, from that night itself, all places of mass gatherings like malls, pubs, fests, night clubs were asked to be shut down.



Schools, colleges, sport facilities, or any public gathering of any sort were cancelled.

Exams though were being held for students, and religious gatherings were permitted with minimum people. Even before the word became a casual reality, lockdown was being imposed slowly.

All hospitals with above 100 beds were asked to reserve a few beds for Covid-19 cases. All IT/BT companies were asked to offer work-from-home facilities for its employees. And all these measures were put in place for one week. The number of cases that day were six. But the state had already screened over 1 lakh people arriving at its airports.

One month since then, the numbers have risen but not exponentially.

There are two cluster transmissions which have upped the numbers — that of the Tablighi Jamaat from Delhi and the Jubiliant Pharma company in Mysuru’s Nanjangud.

But that apart, the numbers haven’t increased and it isn’t entirely because the state is testing fewer people. It is because the state is hyper as far as its monitoring is concerned and it is putting its best task force and technology to work.

A task force headed by Dr Devi Shetty was put in place to devise strategies for enforcing a lockdown, management of health facilities and setting up exclusive Covid-19 hospitals. In a week from announcing the shutdown of Bengaluru, the state was the first to set up an exclusive 2,500-bed hospital with ICU facilities.