Thiruvananthapuram: 1,530 people tested positive for coronavirus and 1,099 patients were cured of COVID-19 in Kerala on Sunday, Health Minister K K Shailaja informed in a press statement.
Of the new cases, 1,351 contracted the disease through contact. The source of infection of 100 among them is unknown. As many as 37 infected persons came from abroad while 89 came from other states.
This is the fourth consecutive day that the state is reporting more than 1,500 cases.
The state has reported 44,415 COVID-19 cases so far, out of which 28,878 persons recovered. The remaining 15,310 patients are being treated in various hospitals.
District-wise breakup of today's positive cases:
Thiruvananthapuram 519 (contact cases-487)
Malappuram 221 (200)
Ernakulam 123 (110)
Kozhikode 118 (106)
Kottayam 100 (91)
Alappuzha 86 (73)
Kollam 81 (70)
Kannur 52 (38)
Wayanad 49 (36)
Kasaragod 48 (37)
Pathanamthitta 44 (33)
Idukki 30 (19)
Thrissur 30 (27)
Palakkad 29 (24)
District-wise breakup of recoveries:
Kasaragod 203
Thiruvananthapuram 190
Ernakulam 120
Palakkad 107
Malappuram 82
Thrissur 64
Kottayam 61
Wayanad 61
Kollam 55
Kozhikode 43
Idukki 39
Alappuzha 30
Pathanamthitta 24
Kannur 20
Over 350 prisoners test positive in Poojapura
More than 350 inmates in the Poojapura Central Jail tested coronavirus positive in the last one week and a murder accused succumbed to the pathogen on Sunday.
The undertrial prisoner was the first to test positive for the virus in the prison at nearby Poojapura and in the last one week 359 more cases, including a staff, have been reported, its superintendent Santhosh S said.
As many as 145 cases were detected on Sunday alone, he said adding barring three, shifted to hospital, others have been kept in a special isolation area within the prison.
COVID deaths
Kerala reported 10 COVID-19 deaths on Sunday. With this, the death toll has risen to 156 in the state.
The deceased include Kannur Kuthuparambu native CC Raghavan, 71, Kannur Kolancheri native Moosa, 76, Kannur Kombanvayyal native Simon, 60, Kannur Thaliparambu CV Venugopalan, 80, Thiruvananthapuram Parassala native Kanakaraj, 60, Pathanamthitta Thiruvalla native Mathew, 60, Kannur Udayagiri native Gopi, 69, Ernakulam Aluva native Abdul Khadr, 73, Ernakulam Aluva native Leelamani Amma, 71, and Kollam native Sarojini, 72.
Health workers
Fifty-three health workers also tested positive in the state on Sunday – 23 from Thiruvananthapuram, 12 from Malappuram, eight from Kannur, four from Ernakulam, two from Kollam and one each from Palakkad, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kozhikode.
Testing and quarantine
A total of 1,62,217 people are under observation in various districts. Of these, 1,48,793 are under home or institutional quarantine and 13,424 are in hospitals.
1,548 people were admitted in hospitals on Sunday alone.
So far, 11,82,727 samples (including the augmented sample) have been sent for testing. Of these, the test results of 8,256 samples are yet to arrive.
In addition, as part of Sentinel Surveillance, 1,49,385 samples were collected from priority groups, such as health workers, guest workers, social contacts. Of them, 1,187 results are yet to be received.
On Sunday, 19 more regions have been converted into hotspots and 13 have been excluded from the list taking the total number of hotspots to 568 in the state.
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.