Bengaluru, Jun 24 (IANS): Contacts of earlier Covid cases have outnumbered domestic returnees yet again in Karnataka, even as 322 new cases raised the state's tally to 9,721, an official said on Tuesday.

"New cases reported from Monday 5 p.m. to Tuesday 5 p.m. 322," said a health official. As many as 154 contacts of earlier cases contracted the virus, constituting 48 per cent of the cases.

Unlike before, returnees accounted for only 64 or 20 per cent of the cases, majority of them from Maharashtra. There were also five cases with international travel history to Kuwait, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, nine people succumbed to the virus, six in Bengaluru Urban and one each in Ballari and Dakshina Kannda.

On Tuesday, cases spiked in Bengaluru Urban, Ballari, Bidar, Mysuru, Vijayapura, Yadgir, Udupi, Gadag, Dakshina Kannada, Kolar, Hassan, Kalaburagi, Chikkaballapura and Shivamogga.

Among the new cases, Bengaluru Urban contributed 107 cases, followed by Ballari (53), Bidar (22), Mysuru (21), Vijayapura (16), Yadgir (13), Udupi (11), Gadag (9), Dakshina Kannada and Kolar (8 each), Hassan (7), Kalaburagi (6), Chikkaballapura and Shivamogga (5 each), Dharwad, Tumkur, Koppal and Chamarajanagar (4 each), Raichur and Uttara Kannada (3 each), Mandya, Belagavi, Davangere and Haveri (2 each) and Kodagu (1).

As many as 72 patients are suffering from Influenza-like Illness (ILI) and 18 from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI).

On a positive note, 274 people got discharged, raising the total number of discharges to 6,004.

Currently, Bengaluru Urban is leading the state's Covid-19 burden with 996 active cases, followed by Kalaburagi (442), Ballari (346), Yadgir (326), Dakshina Kannada (190) and Bidar (143).

In all, 5.26 lakh samples have been tested so far, of which 5.03 lakh have returned negative.

Of the 150 deaths, Bengaluru Urban has accounted for 73 deaths, followed by Bidar (15), Kalaburagi (11), Vijayapura, Davangere and Dakshina Kannada (7 each), among others.