Bengaluru, Oct 23 (IANS): Maintaining its upward trend, Covid recoveries shot up to 13,550 on a day, while new cases declined to 5,778 across Karnataka.

"With 13,550 patients discharged on Wednesday, recoveries soared to 6,84,835 till date, while 5,778 fresh cases took the state's Covid tally to 7,88,551, including 92,927 active cases so far," said the state's health bulletin on Thursday.

The pandemic claimed 74 lives in the last 24 hours across the southern state, taking its death toll to 10,770, including 3,667 in Bengaluru, with 36 in the last 24 hours.

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Discharges also increased to 7,683 on a day in Bengaluru, taking its recoveries to 2,56,267 till date, while 2,807 new cases increased its Covid tally to 3,18,366, including 58,431 active cases so far.

"The number of recoveries in the state outnumbered the number of new cases for the 8th consecutive day," state health and medical education minister K. Sudhakar tweeted on Thursday.

Higher discharges were reported from districts across the state, with 1,352 from Mysuru, 339 from Mandya and 314 from Davangere.

Of the 940 patients in the intensive care units (ICUs), 371 are in Bengaluru hospitals, 67 in Ballari, 55 in Dharwad, 45 in Chamarajanagar and 44 in Hassan.

Out of 1,07,354 tests conducted in 155 labs across the state on Wednesday, 20,853 were through rapid antigen detection and 86,501 through RT-PCR method, which is over 80 per cent of the total tests.

"Positivity rate declined to 5.38 per cent and case fatality rate at 1.28 per cent," the bulletin said.