Kerala’s COVID-19 burden continues to rise with an exponential increase in cases of local transmission. For the third consecutive day on Sunday, the number of cases acquired by people from the community through local transmission exceeded the number of imported cases of infection.
The State reported 435 new cases, of which, 215 were imported cases of infection brought in by people who had returned from abroad and from other parts of the country, while the cases that occurred through local transmission stood at 218.
This trend of local transmission cases exceeding that of imported cases is being seen across many districts since the past three days.
Ominous signs
In Thiruvananthapuram, 31 out of the 40 new cases reported on Sunday were cases that occurred through local transmission, 35 of the 57 cases in Alappuzha, 41 out of the 50 cases in Ernakulam, 41 out of the 56 cases in Kasaragod and 24 out of the 39 cases in Pathanamthitta were cases of local transmission. Going by the uniform manner in which the increase in local transmission has been happening across all districts, this caseload is bound to increase steadily.
10 health-care workers
Ten health-care workers and two paramilitary force personnel also contracted the disease through local transmission.
The increase in local transmission has resulted in a sudden surge in the patient load in many districts.
The capital district of Thiruvananthapuram with 548 patients has the highest number of active cases, followed by Malappuram, 521, Alappuzha, 372, Kannur, 334, Ernakulam, 329, and Palakkad, 328. With 132 recoveries on Sunday, the number cases undergoing treatment in hospitals in various districts is 3,743. Of the 7,873 cases reported so far, recoveries have been reported in 4,095 cases.
Two deaths
With two more deaths on Sunday, the tally touched 31. Two persons who died on July 5 and July 7 in Thrissur and Alappuzha respectively were found to have tested positive.
The State has put over 1.81 lakh people on surveillance and quarantine, of whom, 3,990 persons with mild symptoms are isolated in hospitals.
The number of routine sample tests done in the past 24 hours is 13,478. Till date, over 3.47 lakh tests have been done in various categories, apart from the sentinel surveillance sample tests numbering 76,075.
30 new hotspots
In tune with the increase in local transmission, more areas in the State have been designated as hotspots. With the addition of 30 new areas in the list, the current number of hotspots in the State is 222.
