Bengaluru, Jul 2 (IANS): Karnataka registered the highest single-day rise of 1,502 Covid-19 cases, with Bengaluru contributing the lion's share as the state's tally rose to 18,016, an official said on Thursday.

"New cases reported from Wednesday 5 p.m. to Thursday 5 p.m., 1,502," said a health official.

Continuing the daily trend of the past few days, Bengaluru witnessed the highest number of cases in the state with 889 infections, raising its total number of cases to 6,179, out of which 5,505 are active.

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Meanwhile, 19 people succumbed to the virus in the past 24 hours, four in Ballari, three each in Bengaluru Urban and Dakshina Kannada, one each in Gadag, Udupi, Koppal, Mysuru, Hassan, Tumkur, Kalaburagi, Belagavi and Uttara Kannada.

With three more deaths, the Covid-19 toll in Bengaluru rose to 100 and total number of deaths in the southern state increased to 272.

Among the new cases, excluding Bengaluru, Dakshina Kannada accounted for 90, followed by Mysuru (68), Ballari (65), Dharwad (47), Vijayapura and Ramanagara (39 each).

Kalaburagi witnessed 38 cases, followed by Bidar (32), Tumkur (26), Shivamogga (23), Mandya (19), Uttara Kannada (17), Hassan (15), Udupi (14), Kolar (12), Raichur (11), Bagalkote (10) and Davangere (8).

Yadgir and Belagavi saw seven cases each, followed by Kodagu (6), Bengaluru Rural (5), Haveri and Koppal (4 each), Chitradurga (3), Gadag (2) and Chikkaballapura and Chikkamagaluru (1 each).

Of the 1,502 cases, 1,204 or 80 per cent are contacts of earlier cases while domestic returnees accounted for 67 cases or 4 per cent.

On Wednesday, 271 people got discharged from different hospitals, elevating the total number of discharges to 8,334.

On a positive note, the number of patients in ICU has plummeted to 161.

Though the total number of cases are 18,016, active cases amount to 9,406.