COVID-19 testing seems to be generally on a decline in the State since the past few days, despite claims of the State that testing will be upped to at least 70,000 tests daily.
On Friday, with just 39,108 samples being tested in the past 24 hours, the new COVID-19 cases reported on Friday was 3,966. However, there was not much change in the test positivity rate. TPR, which has been more or less steady in the 9-10% range since the past few days, touched 10.14% on Friday.
The State also registered more recoveries than new cases on the day, with 4,544 patients getting discharged from hospitals.
Active caseload of the State came down to 63,885. Till date, 5,21,522 persons have recovered from COVID-19 in the State.
The Health department added 23 more deaths to the official COVID-19 list on Friday, taking the total COVID toll to 2,171.
Five of these deaths were reported from Thrissur, four each from Kottayam and Malappuram, three from Alapuzha, two each from Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam, and one from Kozhikode.
The Health department puts the number of COVID-19 patients who are critically ill and in ICUs at 825, with 219 persons on ventilator support.
Of the new cases, all except 81 cases are locally acquired infections, with 488 cases remaining untraced to a known source of infection. The number of healthcare workers who contracted the infection is 49.
Among districts, Malappuram reported 612 cases, Thrissur 525, Ernakulam 397, Kozhikode 374, Palakkad 351, Kottayam 346, Thiruvananthapuram 262, Alappuzha 236, Kollam 229, Pathanamthitta 159, Idukki 143, Kannur 131, Wayanad 105, and Kasaragod 96.
