A 73-year-old woman, who had come to Chavakkad from Mumbai, died of COVID-19 on Thursday taking the death toll in the State to four.
The woman, who had travelled in a car along with three others, developed breathlessness when they reached Perinthalmanna on Wednesday. Her son immediately took her to the Chavakkad Taluk Hospital in an ambulance.
As her condition turned critical, the hospital authorities were preparing to shift her to the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), Thrissur. However, she died before being shifted to the MCH.
The woman, who was suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and breathlessness, had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Thursday.
Her son and the driver of the ambulance were put under observation by the health officials after she tested positive. She hailed from Anchangadi Kadappuram panchayat in Chavakkad.
Cases rise
As more and more expatriates and Non-Resident Keralites from other parts of the country continue to return to the State, Kerala’s COVID-19 caseload is also on an upward spiral, with 24 more testing positive on Thursday.
All 24 are imported cases of infection, with 14 cases reported in persons who had returned from abroad while 10 cases in persons who had come to Kerala from other States, particularly Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Malappuram accounted for five cases, Kannur four, Kottayam and Thrissur three cases each, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, and Alapuzha two cases each, and Idukki, Palakkad, and Kasaragod one case each.
The State also reported the recovery of eight patients. Kerala has so far reported 690 cases, of which 176 patients are currently undergoing treatment in hospitals. A total of 510 patients have since recovered from the disease.
The State currently has 80,138 people under surveillance, of whom 79,611 are in home or institutional quarantine and 527 persons with mild symptoms in isolation wards in hospitals.
On Thursday, 153 persons with mild symptoms were hospitalised.
The number of patients in each districts are as follows: Thiruvananthapuram 9, Kollam 6, Pathanamthitta 7, Alappuzha 7, Kottayam 7, Idukki 2, Ernakulam 9, Thrissur 13, Palakkad 21, Malappuram 35, Kozhikode 14, Wayanad 11, Kannur 21, and Kasaragod 15.
Till date, the State has tested samples from 49,833 persons, of which 48,276 have been negative.
As part of sentinel surveillance, the State has been collecting samples from select groups in the population randomly and testing to check for community transmission. Of the 6,540 samples tested so far, 6,265 samples have returned a negative result. On Thursday, 1,798 samples were sent for testing.
Three regions were newly added to the hotspot list of the State, while eight regions were dropped from the list.. The new ones are Thrikkadeeri and Sreekrishnapuram in Palakkad and Dharmadam in Kannur district.
(With inputs from Thrisuur Bureau)
