Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala shattered its single-day record for new COVID-19 infections on Sunday with 1,169 cases, according to the state health department.
The previous single-day record, 1,167, was recorded on July 28.
This was the sixth time that the daily infections had breached 1000-case mark.
Of the new cases on Sunday, 991 persons, or 85%, acquired infections through contact. No source of infection could be established in 56 cases.
As many as 43 infected persons came from abroad while 95 came from other states.
Thiruvananthapuram Parassala native Vijayalakshmi, 68, died of COVID-19, the National Institute of Virology in Alappuzha confirmed on Sunday. With this, the official death toll has risen to 82.
Twenty-nine health workers also tested positive in the state on Sunday – 11 from Thiruvananthapuram, seven from Ernakulam, five from Kannur, four from Malappuram, one each from Pathanamthitta and Wayanad.
Ten KSE staff and a KLF worker were also among those infected by the virus.
The state has reported 25,911 COVID-19 cases so far, out of which 14,467 persons recovered. The remaining 11,342 patients are being treated in various hospitals.
District-wise breakup of today's positive cases:
Thiruvananthapuram 375 (contact cases - 363)
Ernakulam 128 (79)
Malappuram 126 (113)
Kasaragod 113 (110)
Kottayam 70 (all cases are contact cases)
Kollam 69 (51)
Thrissur 58 (40)
Kozhikode 50 (39)
Idukki 42 (23)
Palakkad 38 (36)
Alappuzha 38 (24)
Pathanamthitta 25 (18)
Wayanad 19 (18)
Kannur 16 (7)
District-wise breakup of recoveries:
Kollam 168
Kozhikode 93
Thiruvananthapuram 66
Thrissur 63
Kannur 55
Malappuram 44
Kottayam 39
Ernakulam 37
Idukki 30
Kasaragod 30
Palakkad 29
Wayanad 19
Alappuzha 15
The single-day case count had crossed 1000-mark five times before this with 1,129 cases on August 1, 1,167 cases on July 28, 1,103 cases on July 25, 1,078 on July 23 and 1,038 on Wednesday July 22. On July 31, 1,310 cases were reported, but this figure was a cumulative number of the day's added with the remaining from July 30 that were left out due to a glitch in the ICMR website.
From when the first case was confirmed in the state on January 30, 2020, it took 168 days, or five-and-a-half months to reach the 10k-mark on July 16. However, it took only 11 more days to cross 20,000 cases.
Testing and quarantine
A total of 1,45,777 individuals are under observation and 1,35,173 are in home or institutional quarantine. Out of the 10,604 under observation in hospitals 1,363 were admitted on Sunday.
In the past 24 hour, 22,028 samples were tested for the coronavirus. Out of the total 8,17,078 samples sent for testing so far, 5215 results have not arrived yet.
Out of the 1,26,042 samples sent for testing as part of sentinel surveillance, 1,541 results are yet to arrive.
The state government added 30 new hotspots and excluded 25 regions from the list of hotspots. The state has 497 hotspots currently.
Nurses in Ernakulam GH coronavirus positive
Of the 128 cases reported in Ernakulam, 85 contracted the virus through contact. There are four staff nurses of Ernakulam General Hospital among those tested positive.
Six more residents of Karunalayam old-age home in Thrikkakara tested positive on Sunday.
Most of the 70 cases in Kottayam were reported from Athirampuzha panchayat. Fourteen people tested positive in the panchayat, followed by Ettumanoor municipality with nine cases. Seven cases each were reported from Kottayam and Vaikom municipalities and Panachikadu panchayat. A 23-year-old female house surgeon of Kottayam Medical College Hospital also tested positive.
38 COVID-19 positive cases in Kollam jail
Eleven inmates and two officers of Kollam district jail have tested positive on Sunday. With this, 38 people at the district jail are now coronavirus positive. Three of the prisoners have been transferred to a COVID treatment centre. A portion of the jail was converted into a COVID health centre following the incident.
Idukki panchayat office closed
The Idukki Elappara panchayat office has been shut down after the Panachayat president and his wife tested positive. Those who visited the panchayat in the past one week have been asked to go into quarantine.