Coronavirus | Active case pool climbs steadily in Kerala

Case surge more in districts where polls were held in first two phases

A man wearing a face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus carries a child and walks past a graffiti in Kochi, Kerala. File photo

The active case pool of COVID-19 patients in the State, which had been brought down to 57,000 after it hit the peak at 97,000 plus cases, is now swelling slowly and steadily since the past few days.

The State’s active case pool rose to 63,155 on Thursday, with 5,177 new cases of COVID-19 being reported, when 56,073 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. The test positivity rate stood at 9.23%.

A warning

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has asked the people to maintain utmost vigil and not to violate any of the COVID-19 protocols as the rising trend in cases is being reported from many districts. Epidemiological analysis shows that disease transmission has gone up slightly in districts where local body elections were held in the initial two phases. In comparison, the increase in new cases was less in Malappuram and beyond where elections were held in the last phase.

Even so, new cases have not shown as big a surge in Kerala in the post-poll period as it happened in rest of the country, possibly because of the manner in which the public has been cooperating with the government in following all COVID protocols, Mr. Vijayan said. However, there should be no relaxation in universal masking or the maintenance of physical distancing during Christmas and New Year celebrations, he added.

The cumulative case burden of the State has risen to 7,26,687 cases. With 4,801 more patients leaving hospitals on Thursday, the cumulative recoveries reported in the State till date has gone up to 6,60,445.

22 deaths

The State’s official COVID toll now stands at 2,914, with 22 new deaths being added to the official COVID death list on Thursday. Ernakulam and Kozhikode reported four deaths each, Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur three each, Kottayam two while Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Idukki, Malappuram, and Wayanad reported one death each.

Official reports put the number of critically ill COVID patients in the State occupying ICUs in various hospitals at 851, with 217 persons requiring ventilator support. Of the 5,177 new cases, 108 cases have been found to have a history of travel outside the State while 5,069 are locally acquired infections, with the source of infection remaining unknown in 475 cases. Of this, 52 are health care workers.

Among districts, Thrissur reported 591 cases, Kollam 555, Ernakulam 544, Kozhikode 518, Kottayam 498, Malappuram 482, Pathanamthitta 405, Thiruvananthapuram 334, Palakkad 313, Alappuzha 272, Kannur 263, Wayanad 165, Idukki 153, and Kasaragod 84 cases.