Kerala reported 5,528 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday when 61,239 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, taking the State’s cumulative COVID case burden to 8,06,603 cases.
The test positivity rate, which seemed to drop slightly in the past two days, was 9.03%
With 5,424 recoveries reported on Saturday, the active case pool in the State now stands at 64,318 cases, while the cumulative COVID-19 recoveries in the State ever since the pandemic began has risen to 7,38,808 cases.
On Saturday the State added 22 new deaths which took place in the State since January 1 to the official list of COVID-19 fatalities. With this, the cumulative COVID toll in the State now stands at 3,279.
Kozhikode reported five of these deaths, Alappuzha and Ernakulam four each, Palakkad three, Thiruvananthapuram and Kottayam two each while Kannur and Kollam reported one death each.
The number of critically-ill COVID patients in the State who are currently being treated in ICUs in various hospitals in the State is 780 on Saturday, according to official reports, with 214 of them requiring ventilator assistance.
Of the 5,528 new cases reported on the day, in 60 cases, the Health Department has reported a history of travel outside the State while 5,468 are locally acquired infections. Amongst the locally acquired infections, in 435 cases the source of infection remains untraced while the number of health workers who acquired the infection is 45.
Among districts, Ernakulam reported the maximum number of new cases with 893 cases, Kozhikode 599, Kottayam 574, Malappuram 523, Kollam 477, Pathanamthitta 470, Thrissur 403, Thiruvananthapuram 344, Alappuzha 318, Idukki 222, Palakkad 217, Wayanad 213, Kannur 182, and Kasaragod 93 cases.
None from the U.K., who arrived in the State between December 9-23, have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
So far, a total of 50 people who arrived from U.K. during the specified period to the State have tested positive for COVID-19. So far in six samples has the infection due to the UK virus variant B.1.1.7 been detected. More results are awaited from NIV, Pune .
