Kerala’s COVID-19 tally crosses eight lakh mark

5,142 new cases and 5,325 recoveries reported; test positivity rate at 8.63%

Health workers engaged in COVID testing at Government School Vazhamuttom in Thiruvananthapuram. File photo

The cumulative COVID-19 case burden of Kerala crossed the eight lakh mark on Friday when the State reported 5,142 new cases when 59,569 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. The cumulative case burden of Kerala has risen to 8,01,075 cases.

The test positivity rate, which had been staying around 9-11 % and which fell below 9% on Thursday for the first time in several weeks, stayed at 8.63% on Friday.

With a significant number of recoveries — 5,325 patients leaving hospitals — reported on the day, the active case pool in the State remains stabilised around 64,236 cases. The cumulative recoveries reported till date in the State rose to 7,33,384 cases.

23 deaths

The COVID toll in the State has risen to 3,257 with 23 new deaths in the past several days added to the official list of fatalities on Friday. Palakkad accounted for five deaths, Thrissur four, Ernakulam, Kottayam and Kozhikode three each, Malappuram two while one death each was reported from Kollam, Idukki, and Thiruvananthapuram.

The number of critically ill patients currently being treated in ICUs is 797 on Friday, according to official reports, with 231 of them requiring ventilator assistance.

Of the 5,142 new cases reported on the day, the Health Department has reported a history of travel outside the State in 88 cases while 5,054 are locally acquired infections.

Amongst the locally acquired infections, in 424 cases the source of infection remains untraced while the number of healthcare workers who acquired the infection is 67.

Among districts, Ernakulam reported the maximum number of new cases with 708 cases, Thrissur 500, Kozhikode 469, Pathanamthitta 433, Malappuram 419, Kollam 377, Alappuzha 341, Thiruvananthapuram 313, Idukki 301, Palakkad 267, Kannur 249, Wayanad 238, and Kasaragod 65.

U.K. variant

Three more persons who arrived in the State between December 9 and 23 from the United Kingdom tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

With this, a total of 50 persons who arrived from the U.K. during the specified period to the State have tested positive for COVID-19.

Till now, National Institute of Virology, Pune, has found the presence of the U.K. virus variant in only six samples from the State.