Kerala recorded new 4,642 COVID-19 cases and 4,748 recoveries on Friday.

The new cases were recorded after testing 53,508 samples in 24 hours. With this, the test positivity rate came down to 8.68 in the state.

Of the new cases, 4,029 had contracted the virus through contact while 73 had come from outside the state. Among the contact cases, the source of infection of 496 is yet to be traced.

Currently, the number of active cases in the state is at 59,380.

The state has reported 6,58,683 COVID-19 infections so far. Of this, 5,96,593 made recovery.

Here's the break-up of today's positive cases:

Kozhikode - 626 (608 contact cases)
Malappuram - 619 (595)
Kollam - 482 (475)
Ernakulam - 409 (309)
Alappuzha - 396 (372)
Pathanamthitta - 379 (287)
Kottayam - 326 (291)
Kannur - 286 (249)
Thiruvananthapuram - 277 (183)
Thrissur - 272 (265)
Palakkad - 257 (117)
Idukki - 155 (127)
Wayanad - 87 (81)
Kasaragod - 71 (70)

Recoveries:

Thiruvananthapuram - 392
Kollam - 554
Pathanamthitta - 150
Alappuzha - 249
Kottayam - 243
Idukki - 176
Ernakulam - 592
Thrissur - 500
Palakkad - 243
Malappuram - 790
Kozhikode - 450
Wayanad - 149
Kannur - 206
Kasaragod - 54

29 more COVID deaths

Twenty-nine COVID deaths too were confirmed. With this, COVID death toll rose to 2,562.

Though more deaths were reported, the state is yet to ascertain them as COVID deaths. Tests are underway at the National Institute of Virology in Alappuzha.

44 healthworkers contract virus

Forty-four healthworkers too contracted the virus on the day.

They include 10 from Kannur, 9 from Pathanamthitta, 7 from Thiruvananthapuram, 5 from Ernakulam, 4 from Kozhikode, 3 from Kollam, 2 from Wayanad, and one each from Kottayam, Idukki, Thrissur and, Palakkad.

Testing and Quarantine

Till Friday, 68,61,907 samples (including routine, airport surveillance, pooled sentinel, CBNAAT, TrueNAT, CLIA and antigen assay) were sent for testing.

A total of 3,15,644 people are under observation across the state. Of them, 3,02,102 are under home or institutional quarantine while 3,02,102 are in hospital. A total of 1,379 people were admitted in hospitals in the past 24 hours.

No new hotspots were added to the list today while one region was removed from it. The total number of hotspots is at 440 in the state now.