Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala again shattered its single-day record for new COVID-19 infections on Monday with 1,725 cases, the Health department informed in a press statement.

The previous single-day record, 1,608, was on August 15. The state is reporting over 1,500 cases for the fifth consecutive day.

Of the new cases recorded, 1,572 contracted the disease through contact. The source of infection of 94 among them is unknown. As many as 45 infected persons came from abroad while 75 came from other states. Thirteen deaths were also confirmed by the state on Monday.

The state has reported 46,140 COVID-19 cases so far, out of which 30,029 persons recovered. The remaining 15,890 patients are being treated in various hospitals.

In a slight relief, 1,131 patients were cured of COVID-19 on Monday.

District-wise breakup of today's positive cases:

Thiruvananthapuram - 461 (contact cases – 435)

Malappuram - 306 (285)

Thrissur - 156 (144)

Alappuzha - 139 (122)

Palakkad - 137 (124)

Ernakulam - 129 (123)

Kasaragod - 97 (90)

Kottayam - 89 (81)

Kannur - 77 (61)

Kollam - 48 (45)

Kozhikode - 46 (33)

Idukki - 23 (14)

Wayanad - 15 (13)

Pathanamthitta - 2 (2)

District-wise breakup of recoveries:

Thiruvananthapuram – 270

Kasaragod – 170

Malappuram – 130

Alappuzha – 110

Kollam – 89

Kozhikode – 76

Ernakulam – 63

Palakkad – 53

Kottayam – 46

Thrissur – 42

Pathanamthitta – 32

Kannur – 22

Idukki – 15

Wayanad – 13

COVID deaths

Thirteen COVID deaths have been confirmed in the state on Monday.

The deceased has been identified as Varghese (90) from Kannur who died on August 7; KG Chandran (75) from Alappuzha, Biju (69) from Kozhikode who died on August 11; Asma (38) from Kasaragod; Abbas (55) from Kasaragod who died on August 10; Kurain Titus (42) from Thiruvananthapuram who died on August 13; B Haji (65) from Malappuram; Selvaraj (58) from Thiruvananthapuram; Rameshan (47) from Bekal in Kasaragod; Rajan S Pillai (76) from Alappuzha who died on August 3; Mariyamma (75) from Manjeshwaram in Kasaragod who died on August 14; Fathima (7 months old) from Kasaragod who died on August 16; Siluamma (75) from Thiruvananthapuram who died on August 5.

With this, COVID death toll rises to 169 in the state. There have been more deaths in the state associated with COVID, but the state is yet to confirm them as NIV tests are still ongoing.

Health workers

Thirty-one health workers also tested positive in the state on Monday – 15 from Thiruvananthapuram, five from Kannur, Three each from Thrissur and Malappuram, two from Kozhikode, one each from Ernakulam, Palakkad and Kasaragod.

Virus spreading in Poojapura Central Jail

Coronavirus pandemic has hit the central jail here with more than 470 inmates testing positive in the last one week. As many as 114 cases were detected on Monday alone. On Sunday also 145 inmates had tested positive and a murder accused died due to COVID-19.

Testing and quarantine

A total of 1,64,029 people are under observation in various districts. Of these, 1,50,332 are under home or institutional quarantine and 13,697 are in hospitals.

1455 people were admitted in hospitals on Monday.

So far, 12,05,759 samples (including the augmented sample) have been sent for testing. In addition, as part of Sentinel Surveillance, 1,49,766 samples were collected from priority groups, such as health workers, guest workers, social contacts.

On Monday, 24 more regions have been converted into hotspots and 21 have been excluded from the list taking the total number of hotspots to 571 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. It took only 17 days to add 20,000 more cases and on August 14, keeping with the trend, the number of cases doubled to cross the 40,000-mark.