Kerala recorded 150 new COVID-19 cases and 65 recoveries on Friday.

This is the eighth consecutive day the case count has breached 100.

Of the 150 positive cases Friday, 91 had come from abroad of which fifty are from Kuwait alone.

The others are from Saudi Arabia (15), UAE (14), Qatar (6), Oman (4), Sri Lanka and Italy one each.

Forty-eight had come from other states of which fifteen are from Maharashtra, 11 from Delhi, 10 from Tamil Nadu, six from Haryana, two from Karnataka and one each from Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh.

Ten contracted the disease through contact.

They include five from Thiruvananthapuram, two from Kollam and one each from Kottayam, Malappuram and Kannur districts. The COVID-19 patient from Kannur is a CISF personnel. In addition, a health worker from Palakkad too tested positive.

The state has reported 3,876 COVID-19 cases so far, out of which 2,006 have recovered.

The remaining 1,846 patients are being treated in various hospitals.

Here's the district-wise break-up of today's cases:

Palakkad - 23
Alappuzha - 21
Kottayam - 18
Malappuram - 16
Kollam - 16
Kannur - 13
Ernakulam - 9
Thiruvananthapuram - 7
Thrissur - 7
Kozhikode - 7
Wayanad - 5
Pathanamthitta - 4
Idukki - 2
Kasaragod - 2

Palakkad district reported the most number of cases for the second consecutive day on Friday. Of the 23 cases reported in the district, 13 are returnees from abroad and nine from other states. The patients include two children and a woman health worker.

The health worker is a native of Edathara who works at the Community Health Centre, Parali. She is 53. The district has the highest number of active cases – 237.

The source of the woman's infection is not yet identified. More worrying is the fact that she had attended a vaccination drive for children in the days before and after her swab was collected for testing. 

She was on leave until June 15. After rejoining she did some field visit. She worked on the field four days monitoring those in quarantine. She also took part in the vaccination drive on June 17 and 24. On the first day, she administered injection to five children and two kids the second day, as per preliminary reports. Rest of the time, she was on office duty. Her swab was collected on June 22 as she had mild throat pain. 

The health centre at Parali is a swab collection centre. However, officials said she had not gone to the area where the swab collection takes place. Th authorities are preparing her route map.  The health centre will be  disinfected and closed for two days.

Twenty-one cases were confirmed in Alappuzha. Of them, 14 returned from abroad and seven from other states. One of them, a 46-year-old Kayamkulam native had been undergoing treatment at Kalamassery Medical College after he returned from Kuwait on June 24. Others had been home/institutional quarantined. There are 157 COVID patients undergoing treatment in the district.

Kottayam reported 18 cases on Friday. This is the highest single-day tally in the district. The cases in the district crossed the 100-mark for the first time. There are 113 active cases. Of the 18, 12 are returnees from abroad and five from other states. A 24 year old woman contracted the disease through contact. She is the relative of a Pallikkathode native who had tested positive on June 24. The woman works at a private hospital in the district.

Of the 16 cases reported in Malappuram, 14 came from abroad and one from Bengaluru. A 44-year-old native of Amabalappad, Manjery, contracted the virus through contact with a woman of Uppada, Edakkara, who had tested positive on June 12.

Kollam also reported two contact cases among the 16 cases confirmed.

Kannur reported 13 cases. Of them, six are CISF personnel and three are staff of Army DSC canteen. Two CISF personnel were on duty at the Kannur airport. One of the CISF men contracted the disease through contact.

Of the seven people who tested positive in Thiruvananthapuram, five contracted the disease through contact. Three of them, a man (50) who runs a stationary shop at Manacaud market junction, his wife (42) and son (15) were in the contact list of a person who had tested positive earlier. Two patients, a 60-year-old man at Puthanpalam, Vallakkadav, and a 41-year-old man at Manacaud, also contracted the disease through contact, though their source of infection is unknown. The former is a retired employee of the VSSC while the latter still works there.

Of the nine cases in Ernakulam, eight came from abroad and one from Madhya Pradesh. Of the returnees from abroad, three came by the same flight from Kuwait on June 13.

The returnee from Madhya Pradesh is a 14-year-old who stays at Parakkadav. A Nayarambalam native who had tested positive on June 21 had come in contact with the family of the teenager.

Other districts:
Thrissur – Three from abroad and four from other states
Idukki – One each from Muscat and Tamil Nadu
Kasaragod – Two from Dubai

District-wise break-up of today's recoveries:

Malappuram - 18
Thrissur - 15
Kollam - 10
Kozhikode - 11
Idukki- 5
Kottayam - 2
Palakkad - 2
Kannur - 1
Kasaragod - 1

A total of 1,63,944 people are under observation in various districts. Of these, 1,61,547 are under home-quarantine and 2397 are in hospitals. As many as 312 people were admitted in hospitals on Monday.

So far, 2,09,456 samples (including the augmented sample) have been sent for testing. In the last 24 hours, 5,859 samples were examined. Results of 4,510 tests are awaited.

In addition, as part of Sentinel Surveillance, 43,032 samples were collected from priority groups, such as health workers, guest workers, social contacts. Of them, 41,569 have returned negative.

Two more regions have been converted into hotspots. There are currently 114 hotspots in the state.

The new hot spots are Amballoor (containment zone ward 2) in Ernakulam district and Punnapra South (2) in Alappuzha district. Vallappuzha (ward 2) in Palakkad has been excluded from the list