Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala reported 4,969 new coronavirus positive cases after 60,851 tests on Thursday. The state also registered 4,970 recoveries in the last 24 hours, the Health department informed in a press statement.
With 27 deaths being reported on Thursday, the state's death toll has risen to 2,734. The test positivity rate stands at 8.17.
Of the new cases, 4,282 contracted the disease through contact. The source of infection of 541 among them is unknown.
As many as 99 infected persons came from outside the state.
The state has reported 6,88,409 COVID-19 cases so far, out of which 6,27,364 persons recovered. The remaining 58,155 patients are undergoing treatment.
'COVID-19: Trend Analysis and Projection' report prepared by Project Jeevan Raksha, a public-private partnership shows that Kerala will add nearly 1.20 lakh new cases within a month, with cases expected to touch 7.85 lakh by January 12, 2021.
The report claims that the surge is over in Kerala and that by early January, the state may see an average 3,500 to 4,000 new Covid cases per day and about 25 daily deaths. Now the state sees an average of 4,500 to 5,000 new cases per day.
Testing and quarantine
A total of 2,96,747 people are under observation in various districts. Of these, 2,83,389 are under home or institutional quarantine and 13,358 are in hospitals.
1,563 people were admitted in hospitals on Thursday.
So far, 71,79,051 samples (including the augmented sample) have been sent for testing.
On Thursday, seven more regions have been converted into hotspots and four have been excluded from the list taking the total number of hotspots to 453 in the state.
District-wise breakup of today's positive cases:
Kozhikode - 585 (contact cases – 540)
Malappuram - 515 (467)
Kottayam - 505 (474)
Ernakulam - 481 (357)
Thrissur - 457 (446)
Pathanamthitta - 432 (356)
Kollam - 346 (339)
Alappuzha - 330 (304)
Palakkad - 306 (137)
Thiruvananthapuram - 271 (192)
Kannur - 266 (222)
Idukki - 243 (230)
Wayanad - 140 (135)
Kasaragod - 92 (83)
District-wise breakup of recoveries:
Kozhikode – 780
Kottayam – 576
Ernakulam – 565
Malappuram – 520
Alappuzha – 484
Thrissur – 440
Kollam – 418
Palakkad – 277
Thiruvananthapuram – 265
Wayanad – 209
Pathanamthitta – 184
Kannur – 101
Idukki – 98
Kasaragod – 53