COVID-19: 1,608 new positive cases in Kerala on Saturday, 803 recover

Thiruvananthapuram: 1,608 people tested positive for coronavirus and 803 patients were cured of COVID-19 in Kerala on Saturday, the Health department informed in a press statement.

This is the third consecutive day that Kerala is recording the highest single-day cases. On Friday, 1,569 cases and on Thursday 1,564 cases were reported from the state.

Of the new cases, 1,409 contracted the disease through contact. The source of infection of 112 among them is unknown.

As many as 74 infected persons came from abroad while 90 came from other states.

The state has reported 42,885 COVID-19 cases so far, out of which 27,779 persons recovered. The remaining 14,891 patients are being treated in various hospitals.

District-wise breakup of today's positive cases:

Malappuram - 362 (contact cases – 307)

Thiruvananthapuram - 321 (313)

Kozhikode - 151 (134)

Alappuzha - 118 (106)

Ernakulam - 106 (99)

Kollam - 91 (86)

Thrissur - 85 (77)

Kasaragod - 81 (71)

Palakkad - 74 (49)

Kannur - 52 (47)

Pathanamthitta - 49 (31)

Wayanad - 48 (40)

Kottaym - 39 (33)

Idukki - 31 (16)

District-wise breakup of recoveries:

Thiruvananthapuram – 170

Ernakulam – 124

Palakkad – 92

Alappuzha – 80

Thrissur – 63

Kozhikode – 56

Kottayam – 45

Kollam – 42

Idukki – 39

Pathanamthitta – 37

Kannur – 32

Wayanad – 20

Kasaragod – 3

COVID deaths

Seven COVID deaths have been confirmed in the state.

They include Judy (69) from Anchuthengu, Thiruvananthapuram who died on August 4; Philomina (70) from Kollam who died on August 13; Sathi Vasudevan (64) from Aluva, Ernakulam who died on August 3; Asis D'souza (81) from Kasaragod who died on August 8; MD Devasi (75) from Vattaparambu, Ernakulam who died on August 11; Lakshmikutty (69) from Poonthura, Thiruvananthapuram who died on August 13; Ravi (58) from who died on August 7.

With this the state's COVID death toll has risen to 146.

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. In the next 11 days it crossed 20,000 cases on July 28 and just nine more days to breach the 30,000 mark on August 6. Keeping with the trend, in just another eight days the number of cases breached the 40,000 mark on Friday.

Health workers infected

Thirty-one health workers too have contracted the virus. They include 19 from Malappuram, 6 from Thiruvananthapuram, and 1 each from Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Palakkad, Wayanad and Kasaragod districts.

Four INHS employees from Ernakulam too have contracted the virus.

Testing and quarantine

A total of 1,60,169 people are under observation in various districts. Of these, 1,46,811 are under home-quarantine and 13,358 are in hospitals.

1859 people were admitted in hospitals on Saturday.

The number of tests being done have increased, within the last 24 hours 32,108 COVID tests were done.

So far, 11,54,365 samples (including the augmented sample) have been sent for testing. Of these, the test results of 9,246 samples are yet to arrive.

In addition, as part of Sentinel Surveillance, 1,47,640 samples were collected from priority groups, such as health workers, guest workers, social contacts. Of them, results of 2,338 are yet to be received.

On Saturday, 20 more regions have been converted into hotspots and 12 have been excluded from the list taking the total number of hotspots to 562 in the state.