Thiruvananthapuram: 2,375 people tested positive for coronavirus and 1,456 patients were cured of COVID-19 in Kerala on Tuesday, the Health department informed in a press statement.

Of the new cases, 2,142 contracted the disease through contact. The source of infection of 174 among them is unknown. As many as 61 infected persons came from abroad while 118 came from other states.

The state has reported 61,879 COVID-19 cases so far, out of which 40,343 persons recovered. The remaining 21,232 patients are being treated in various hospitals.

The state also recorded 10 deaths on the day taking the official toll to 244.

Forty-nine health workers also tested positive in the state on Tuesday – 15 from Malappuram, 11 from Ernakulam, 10 from Thiruvananthapuram, five from Kannur, three from Pathanamthitta, two from Thrissur and one each from Kollam, Palakkad and Kasaragod.

In Ernakulam, five workers at the INHS also were infected by the virus.

From January 30, 2020, when the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the state, it took 168 days, or five-and-a-half months to reach the 10K-mark on July 16. However, it took only 12 more days to cross the 20,000 tally. The numbers doubled to 40K on August 14. On Tuesday, the numbers soared past 60K.

District-wise breakup of contact cases:

Malappuram – 413

Thiruvananthapuram – 378

Kozhikode – 243

Thrissur – 220

Alappuzha – 156

Kannur – 133

Ernakulam – 128

Palakkad – 109

Kasaragod – 98

Pathanamthitta – 63

Kollam – 85

Kottayam – 85

Wayanad – 26

Idukki - 5

District-wise breakup of recoveries:

Thiruvananthapuram – 303

Malappuram – 240

Kozhikode – 140

Palakkad – 119

Kannur – 99

Kasaragod – 95

Thrissur – 90

Ernakulam – 85

Kottayam – 67

Alappuzha – 60

Kollam – 57

Idukki – 37

Pathanamthitta – 32

Wayanad – 32

COVID deaths

Ten COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state on Tuesday. The deceased were identified as Abdu Rahman (70, from Malappuram), Avaran (69, Wayanad), P P Gireesh (49, Kozhikode), Kuttyappu (72, Malappuram), Krishnakumar (58, Thiruvananthapuram), Thomas (81, Kollam), Krishnan (54, Alappuzha), Rajalakshmi (63, Kollam), Thankamma (78, Alappuzha) and Krishnan Thambi (80, Thiruvananthapuram).

Testing and quarantine

A total of 1,83,794 people are under observation in various districts. Of these, 1,66,784 are under home or institutional quarantine and 17,010 are in hospitals.

1834 people were admitted in hospitals on Tuesday.

In the last 24 hours, 34,344 samples were tested.

So far, 14,84,907 samples (including the augmented sample) have been sent for testing. In addition, as part of Sentinel Surveillance, 1,66,945 samples were collected from priority groups, such as health workers, guest workers, social contacts.

On Monday, 10 more regions have been converted into hotspots and 14 have been excluded from the list taking the total number of hotspots to 619 in the state.