Thiruvananthapuram: 1,310 persons tested positive for coronavirus and 864 patients were cured of COVID-19 in Kerala on Friday, the Health department informed in a press statement.

The list includes 885 cases on Friday and 425 from Thursday. (The health department released an incomplete list of 506 infections on Thursday because of technical issues with the ICMR website. With the release of complete list today, Thursday's infections would be 931).

1,162 of them infected through contact while the source remains unknown in 36 cases.

Forty-eight patients came from abroad and 54 from other states.

Twenty healthcare workers (eight from Thiruvananthapuram, five from Kannur, three from Kozhikode, one each from Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Malappuram and Thrissur), four KSE workers, one KLF employee in Thrissur and 20 staff of INHS in Ernakulam were also infected on Friday.

The state has so far reported 23,612 COVID-19 cases, out of which 13,027 persons recovered. The remaining 10,495 patients are being treated in various hospitals.

District-wise breakup of today's positive cases:

Thiruvananthapuram - 320 (contact cases- 311)

Ernakulam – 132 (109)

Pathanamthitta - 130 (127)

Wayanad - 124 (all are contact cases)

Kottayam - 89 (85)

Kozhikode - 84 (75)

Palakkad - 83 (65)

Malappuram - 75 (63)

Thrissur - 60 (48)

Idukki - 59 (30)

Kollam - 53 (44)

Kasaragod - 52 (48)

Alappuzha - 35 (29)

Kannur – 14 (4)

District-wise breakup of recoveries:

Kasaragod - 129

Thiruvananthapuram - 114

Palakkad - 111

Kollam - 94

Kozhikode - 75

Ernakulam - 66

Kottayam - 65

Idukki - 45

Pathanamthitta - 44

Kannur - 41

Thrissur - 27

Alappuzha - 25

Wayanad - 19

Malappuram – 9

Deaths

Three deaths were also recorded on Friday – Baihaiki, 59, and Eliyamma, 85, in Ernakulam, and Rukmini, 56, in Kollam district.

With this, the state's death toll rose to 73.

Testing and quarantine

Of the 1,43,323 people under observation for suspected infection, 1,33,151 are in home or institutional quarantine and 10,172 are hospitalised. As many as 1,292 people were hospitalised on Friday alone.

According to the statement, in the last 24 hours, 22,279 samples were tested. In total, 7,76,268 samples (including routine, airport surveillance, pooled sentinel, CBNAAT, TrueNAT, CLIA and antigen assay) were sent for testing. Of this, results of 6,445 samples are yet to be returned. Out of the 1,23,227 samples collected as part of sentinel surveillance, results of 2,645 samples are yet to be received.

Fourteen new places were designated as hotspots on Friday, while 11 local-self governments were excluded from the list. The state has 498 hotspots as of now.