Bengaluru, June 7 (IANS): Karnataka registered 239 fresh coronavirus cases in 24 hours, comprising largely inter-state returnees, raising the state's tally to 5,452, an official said on Sunday.

"With 239 new positive cases reported in the last 24 hours, the total active cases across the state has gone up to 3,257," said the health official in a statement here.

Of the 183 domestic returnees, 177 or 97 per cent of them are from the neighbouring Maharashtra state. Other patients are from Delhi and Andhra Pradesh.

There are also 9 international returnees from Kuwait and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"Cases spiked in Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Belagavi, Bengaluru Urban, Dakshina Kannada, Davangere, Udupi, Shivamogga, Vijayapura, Bidar, Ballari, Bengaluru Rural and Hassan," said the official.

Among the new cases, Kalaburagi and Yadgir accounted for 39 each, followed by Belagavi (38), Bengaluru Urban (23), Dakshina Kannada and Davangere (17 each), Udupi (13), Shivamogga (12), Vijayapura (9), Bidar (7), Ballari (6), Bengaluru Rural and Hassan (5 each), Dharwad (3), Gadag and Uttara Kannada (2 each) and Mandya and Raichur (1 each).

Two patients succumbed to the virus, a 61-year-old woman and another 57-year-old man, both from Bengaluru Urban, taking the total number of deaths in the southern state to 61, including 2 for non-Covid reasons.

Among the new cases, 134 are men, 105 women and 22 children below 10 years.

Meanwhile, 143 patients were discharged upon recovery in the past 24 hours.

Among all the cases, 2,132 were discharged, while 10 are in the intensive care unit.

On Sunday, 11,860 people were tested for the virus, of which 11,017 turned negative.

In all, 3.84 lakh people were tested, out of which 3.72 turned negative.

Places with the highest Covid burden in the state include Udupi with 798 active cases, followed by Kalaburagi (487), Yadgir (445), Raichur (305), and Bengaluru Urban (161) among others.