Tertiary care hospitals in Kerala were the latest point of COVID-19 transmission with scores of health workers forced to go into quarantine, after patients tested positive. This was seen as a result local transmission.
Local transmission, which initially engulfed the coastal belt in the State, was spreading inland, with more urban areas getting affected.
On Monday, Kerala reported 794 cases of COVID-19, of which, local transmission accounted for 540. Authorities had not been able to trace the source in 24 cases.
Close to 100 health care workers tested positive in the past one week, 15 of them reported on Monday.
The death toll was 43, with another fatality confirmed at Ernakulam. While the cumulative case burden stood at 13,274, the number of patients in hospitals was 7,611. So far, 5,618 persons had recovered.
Disease transmission was high in Thiruvananthapuram district. Apart from the large community clusters in the Poonthura-Pullvila coastal belt, cases here with no epidemiological link were reported from various city areas.
The district reported 182 cases on Monday, of which 175 were due to local transmission. The Government Medical College hospital, the designated COVID-19 hospital in the district, was a site of transmission, with cross infection in patients, visitors, doctors, nurses and other hospital employees.
The disease spread from the non-COVID sections in the surgery wards, where one patient in the post-operative ward tested positive, resulting in over 100 hospital staff, including several doctors and nurses, going into quarantine.
Among other districts, 74 out of the 79 cases in Kollam, 62 out of 72 cases in Ernakulam 45 out of the 92 cases in Kozhikode were attributed to local transmission.
The number of samples tested in the last 24 hours was 14,640. Twenty new areas were designated as hot spots. The number of hot spots in the State at present is 337.
A.P. recrods 4,000 cases
Andhra Pradesh, for the second consecutive day, reported over 4,000 new cases and 54 deaths. The overall tally rose to 53,724 and the death toll to 696. The total cases crossed the 50,000-mark in 131 days after the first case was reported on March 12. More than a quarter of the 4,074 new cases were reported in East Godavari district whose tally increased by 4,277 cases in just a week. Overall, 22,600 cases have been reported in the past week and nearly 40,000 cases reported since July 1.
The doubling time for cases dropped to less than 10 days, and 26,489 cases were reported in the past nine days. Deaths doubled in less than eight days.
The day’s positivity rate was at 12.13% and the overall positivity rate of tests has increased to 3.98%. The mortality rate is at 1.30% but the number of deaths is growing exponentially.
With 1,338 new discharges, the number of recoveries was up to 24,229 and there were 28,800 active cases.
More than half of the new deaths occurred in four districts with East Godavari and Guntur reporting nine each. Krishna reported seven new deaths and Anantapur six. Chittoor, Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam reported five deaths each, Kurnool and West Godavari three deaths each and Kadapa and Vizianagaram one death each.
More than half (55%) of the new cases were reported in three districts — East Godavari (1,086), Kurnool (559) and Guntur (596). The remaining were in West Godavari (354), Anantapur (342), Srikakulam (261), Prakasam (221), Kadapa (152), Krishna (129), Chittoor (116), Visakhapatnam (102), Nellore (100) and Vizianagaram (56). No new imported cases were detected.
The tallies of district local cases were: East Godavari (7,232), Kurnool (6,604), Guntur (5,494), Anantapur (5,483), Chittoor (4,763), West Godavari (3,691), Krishna (3,677), Srikakulam (2,830), Kadapa (2,798), Nellore (2,486), Visakhapatnam (2,200), Prakasam (2,085) and Vizianagaram (1,486).
Over a 24 hour period, 33,580 samples were tested. So far 13,49,112 samples were tested taking the tests per million ratio to 25,264.
Drop in telangana
Telangana maintained a gradual drop in cases as 1,198 tested positive on Monday. Seven more patients died, taking the toll to 422.
Of the 1,198 new cases, 510 were from Greater Hyderabad, 106 from Rangareddy and 76 from Medchal. A total of 46,274 cases were detected till date. Of these, 11,530 were active, 34,323 recovered, and 422 patients died.
After a consistent spike in cases till July 8, drop in cases were recorded from July 9-12. While highest of 1,924 cases was detected on July 8, on July 12, the cases stood at 1,269. Positive cases spiked again from July 13-16 and started to drop gradually . On Monday 1,198 cases were detected, the third lowest this month.
On Monday, 11,003 samples were tested. Till June 20, 2,76,222 tests were conducted and 46,274 tested positive. The cumulative Test Positivity Rate was 16.75%. The number of tests per million stood at 6,906.
The State Health department data said 471 ventilators were available in 61 government COVID-19 hospitals. Beds with oxygen supply stood at 3,537, and there were 1,616 ICU beds.
On Monday, Karnataka recorded 3,648 new cases and 72 deaths. Among new cases, 1,452 were from Bengaluru. The total number of positive cases was 67,420.
Deaths added on Monday stood at 72, taking the total to 1,403. There were 730 discharges, and the total was 23,795. Of 42,216 active cases, 580 patients were in ICUs.
4,985 new cases, 70 deaths in Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu recorded 4,985 more COVID-19 cases and 70 deaths on Monday. The northern districts continued to record more than half of the fresh infections with Chennai leading the table with 1,298 cases.
The State had been reporting more than 4,000 cases per day since July 12. With the new cases, Tamil Nadu’s overall tally was 1,75,678. Another 3,861 persons were discharged, taking the total number of persons discharged till date to 1,21,776, while 51,348 were under treatment. A total of 2,551 persons died.
For the second consecutive day, over 50,000 persons were tested. A total of 50,800 individuals were tested in the past day raising number of people tested to 19,06,617. Also, 52,087 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.
Cases continued to soar in Tiruvallur. With 454 more cases, the district’s tally shot up to 9,424. Chengalpattu added 354 cases, and Kancheepuram 329, while Tiruvannamalai had 148 cases, Vellore had 114 and there were 98 cases in Ranipet, 88 cases in Kallakurichi, 85 each in Villupuram and Cuddalore.
In the southern part of the State, there was a dip in cases in Madurai, with 106 new cases in the district. Thoothukudi had 199 cases followed by 180 in Tirunelveli and 169 in Virudhunagar. There were 107 cases in Theni, 103 cases in Tenkasi, 90 cases in Kanyakumari and 81 in Ramanathapuram. Among other districts, Coimbatore reported 134 cases.
A total of 55 returnees including 24 persons from Karnataka tested positive for COVID-19 in TN. Till date, a total of 4,843 persons who have returned to the State have tested positive.
Of the 3,861 persons discharged, 1,269 were from Chennai hospitals. A total of 331 persons were discharged in Virudhunagar followed by 296 in Kancheepuram. As of date, a total of 70,651 persons were discharged and 15,127 persons were under treatment in Chennai. The city accounted for 1,456 deaths.
Of the 70 deaths, Chennai accounted for 22, while there were nine deaths in Tiruvallur and seven in Chengalpattu.
Among seven persons who had no co-morbidities was a 25-year-old man from Tiruvallur. He was admitted to the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital on July 15, and his swab returned positive for COVID-19 on the next day. He died on July 20 due to sepsis, multi organ dysfunction, acute kidney injury on haemodialysis, bronchopneumonia, respiratory failure and acute severe pancreatitis.
A 34-year-old man with diabetes was admitted to a private hospital in Kanyakumari on July 4 with fever and cough for three days. He died on July 18 due to acute respiratory distress syndrome, viral pneumonia and COVID-19 pneumonia.
Overall, a total of 8,776 children aged 0 to 12 years and 21,682 persons aged above 60 years have tested positive for COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu.
(With inputs from Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai bureaus )
