Thiruvananthapuram
Kerala’s COVID-19 case graph on Tuesday again remained sluggish, reflective of the low testing on Monday, which was a public holiday.
The State reported 5,457 cases on Tuesday when 46,193 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, with which the cumulative case burden of the State crossed the four-lakh mark, to touch 4,02,674 cases.
However, the backlog of the low testing and the proportionate lower burden of new cases in the past three or four days would probably get reflected in tomorrow’s case figures.
The State also recorded more recoveries than new cases on the day, discharging 7,015 patients from hospitals.
The test positivity rate, which had been hovering in the 12-14 % range, slid to 11.8% on Monday.
The cumulative recoveries in the State till date being 3,09,032 cases, the number of active cases at present in the State is 92,161. Of the active cases, 817 are critically ill and in ICUs with 200 patients requiring ventilator support.
The addition of 24 deaths pushed the State’s official COVID-19 toll to 1,376 cases. Thrissur reported six of these deaths, Ernakulam four, Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam three each, while Idukki, Palakkad, Malappuram and Kasaragod reported one case each.
Of the new cases reported on Monday, 98.3% or 5,369 cases are locally acquired infections, with the source of infection remaining unknown in 607 cases. The number of healthcare workers who contracted the infection amongst this is 60.
In the districts, Thrissur reported 730 cases, Ernakulam 716, Malappuram 706, Alapuzha 647, Kozhikode 597, Thiruvananthapuram 413, Kottayam 395, Palakkad 337, Kollam 329, Kannur 258, Pathanamthitta 112, Wayanad 103, Kasaragod 65, and Idukki 49 cases.
The active case pool in southern districts have gone down, especially in Thiruvananthapuram, where the number of active cases have dropped from over 12,000 cases to 8,587 cases. Ernakulam and Malappuram have the highest burden of active cases now with 11,571 cases and 11,267 cases respectively.