Bengaluru, Karnataka registered yet another high single day rise of Covid cases at 1,694, with Bengaluru alone accounting for 994 of them, taking the state's tally to 19,710, an official said on Friday.

"New cases reported from Thursday 5 p.m. to Friday 5 p.m., 1,694," said a health official.

With Friday's spike, Bengaluru's Covid tally rose to 7,173, out of which 6,297 are active.

Of all the cases in the state, 36 per cent are in in Bengaluru itself and in terms of active cases, the city has 59 per cent of them.

Meanwhile, in the past 24 hours, 21 people succumbed to the virus, taking the number of deaths in the state to 293.

Of the latest deaths, five were reported from Bengaluru Urban, three each in Kalaburagi and Chikkaballapura, two each in Vijayapura and Shivamogga, and one each in Ballari, Bengaluru Rural, Davangere, Bidar, Raichur and Hassan.

Among the new cases, apart from Bengaluru, Ballari and Dakshina Kannada contributed 97 cases each, followed by Kalaburagi (72), Tumkur (57), Bengaluru Rural (44), Dharwad (38), Mysuru (35), Mandya (33), followed by Bidar (28), Chamarajanagar (24), Shivamogga (23), Gadag (19), Udupi and Kodagu (16 each), Yadgir (14), and Hassan and Belagavi (13 each).

Kolar witnessed 11 cases, followed by Ramanagara (10), Bagalkote (8), Raichur (7), Davangere and Uttara Kannada (5 each), Vijayapura and Koppal (4 each), Chikkaballapura and Chitradurga (3 each) and Haveri (1).

Of the 1,694 cases, 1,402 are contacts of earlier cases.

On Friday, 471 people were discharged from different hospitals, taking the total number of discharges to 8,805.

The number of patients in ICU increased to 201.

Active cases in the state are 10,608.

Meanwhile, the state Health Department hiked the salaries of contract doctors by Rs 15,000.

"The monthly remuneration of MBBS doctors working for the Department of Health and Family Welfare services on contract is increased from Rs 45,000 to Rs 60,000," said Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey.