The State on Saturday registered 4,644 new COVID-19 cases, after 47,452 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, taking the total case burden to 1,31,025.
The State also registered 2,862 recoveries. With the total recoveries reaching 92,951, the number of patients being treated in various hospitals is 37,488. Of these, 319 patients are critically ill and in ICU, with 88 of them requiring ventilator support.
The State’s official death toll surged to 519, when 18 deaths, which occurred between August 29 to September 17, were added to the provisional list by the Health Department. Five of these deaths were reported from Thiruvananthapuram, four from Thrissur, three from Kollam, two each from Ernakulam and Palakkad and one from Kasaragod.
Of the 4,644 new cases registered on Saturday, almost 84% — 3,881 cases — are locally acquired infections. This include infections reported in 86 health-care workers, 36 of which are in Thiruvananthapuram. In 498 new cases, the source of infection has not been ascertained yet.
Thiruvananthapuram is emerging as the biggest hotspot for COVID-19 in the State with 824 new cases on Saturday. The district has the highest number of active cases — 6,721 — in the State.
Addressing the media here on Saturday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that lack of vigil and COVID-19 protocol violations were rampant, for which the State was paying a heavy price.
An institutional cluster centred around a private hospital in Pathanamthitta has so far resulted in 55 positive cases. People getting together for social events such as weddings and not following the precautions were resulting in intense disease transmission.
Alappuzha has 11 large clusters. In Idukki, Nedumkandam town has been entirely closed, after one of the biggest clusters formed through contact has resulted in 48 cases. This includes a fish wholesale dealer, grama panchayat, bank and Excise officials. The list of contacts drawn up for the fish wholesale dealer has 3,000 or more people.
Malappuram has 534 cases, Kollam 436, Kozhikode 412, Thrissur and Ernakulam 351, Palakkad 349, Alappuzha 348, Kottayam 263, Kannur 222, Pathanamthitta 221, Kasaragod 191, Wayanad 95 and Idukki 47.
There are 630 hotspots in the State at present.
Another wave
Mr. Vijayan said experts were of the view that another wave of COVID-19 was imminent in the country when the situation could become worse.
In Kerala, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 viruses belonging to the A2a clade, marked by the D614G mutation, which is linked to higher infectivity is in circulation, according to the genomic surveillance study conducted at the Kozhikode Medical College, he added.
However, the increase in infectivity is a phenomenon noticed only in cell culture studies in laboratories and cannot be extrapolated to the population.
Mr. Vijayan said that even the smallest of transgressions from COVID-19 precautions could have serious consequences and that everyone needed to behave more responsibly in public places for the sake of every one.
