Kerala reported one of the highest COVID-19 case numbers till date when 84 persons tested positive on Thursday.
All of these cases, except five, are imported cases of infection brought in by expatriates from abroad or Non-Resident Keralites returning from other parts of the country.
Of the new positive cases, 48 are people who returned from other States, while 31 are expatriates who returned from abroad. The remaining five cases are infections acquired through “contact” from known or unknown sources of infection.
These cases apart, a Telengana native, who died in the capital last night has also been confirmed as COVID-19 positive. This person, along with his family, had reached the capital after he boarded a wrong train from Rajasthan on May 22.
Kasaragod accounted for 18 cases, Palakkad (16), Kannur (10), Malappuram (8), Thiruvananthapuram (7), Thrissur (7), Kozhikode (6), Pathanamthitta (6), Kottayam (3), Kollam (1), Alapuzha (1) and Idukki (1).
Three persons were reported to have recovered from the disease on Thursday.
There are 526 COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment in the State. Of the 1,088 cases reported so far in Kerala, 555 persons have recovered from the disease.
The State has put 1,15,297 persons under surveillance, of whom, 1,14,305 are either on home or institutional quarantine. A total of 992 persons have been admitted to isolation wards in various hospitals for observation. On Thursday alone, 210 persons were admitted to hospitals.
Palakkad has the maximum number of COVID-19 patients under treatment at 105. Kannur (93), Kasaragod (63) and Malappuram (52) are some of the districts with large number of cases.
So far, 60,685 samples have been sent for PCR testing and of these, 58,460 have returned a negative result.
As part of sentinel surveillance, 9,937 random samples have been tested, of which 9,217 samples have been negative.
Six new regions were designated as hotspots on Thursday, with three in Kasaragod, two in Palakkad and one in Kottayam. There are 82 hotspots in the State now.
