The State tested 1,96,902 samples for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours – the highest number of samples to have been tested on a single day so far – to register 22,056 new cases on Wednesday.
With the testing increasing by nearly 50,000 samples, the test positivity rate showed a dip at 11.2%.
The State’s active case pool has been climbing steadily and rose to 1,49,534 on Wednesday, with 17,761 recoveries on the day.
The official cumulative COVID-19 case fatality now stands at 16,457, with the State adding 131 deaths, most of which occurred in the past few days, to the official toll on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the number of patients in the State newly admitted to hospitals with the infection climbed steeply from 2,351 on Tuesday to 3,125 on Wednesday. Total hospitalisations of those with moderate or severe infection, which had remained more or less steady around 25,000 for weeks, has now begun to climb and was 27,113 on the day.
Total ICU admissions of critically ill COVID patients in the State, in both public and private hospitals on Wednesday was 1,880, while the number of patients requiring ventilator support was 691.
The cumulative case burden now stands at 33,27,301 cases.
Among the districts, Malappuram reported the highest number of new cases with 3,931 cases followed by Thrissur 3,005, Kozhikode 2,400, Ernakulam 2,397, Palakkad 1,649, Kollam 1,462, Alappuzha 1,461, Kannur 1,179, Thiruvananthapuram 1,101, Kottayam 1,067, Kasaragod 895, Wayanad 685, Pathanamthitta 549, and Idukki 375 cases.
