Bengaluru, Jul 16 (IANS): From an average of 20,000 Covid tests a day, Karnataka health department will scale up its testing capacity to 50,000 samples daily in 10 days' time, said a Minister on Thursday.

"Within the next 7-10 days, testing capacity will be enhanced to conduct 40,000 - 50,000 tests per day," said Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar.

He said the state conducted 23,451 Covid tests on Thursday and 9.25 lakh tests overall since the start of the pandemic.

Sudhakar said that currently the southern state's recovery rate is 38.7 per cent and mortality rate at 2.01 per cent.

On Thursday, with 104 new deaths, total toll in Karnataka reached 1,032, while Bengaluru Urban accounted for half of them with 507 fatalities.

The Minister visited C.V. Raman General Hospital at Indiranagar locality in the city and directed the doctors to send asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients to Covid Care Centres (CCCs).

He also directed them to immediately equip the hospital's ICU with high flow oxygen beds and ventilators.

Total number of COVID-19 cases in Karnataka crossed the 50,000 mark on Thursday with 4,169 fresh cases.