Kerala reported 6,477 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. Testing levels rose, with 56,057 samples added in 24 hours.
The number of active cases in hospitals rose to 48,892. Of these cases, 371 persons were being cared for in ICUs, with 96 requiring ventilator support.
The State’s death toll rose steadily and on Friday, 22 deaths that took place between September 3 and 24 were added to the official list. Six of these deaths were reported from Thiruvananthapuram, four each from Alapuzha and Kottayam, three from Thrissur, two from Kollam and one each from Pathanamthitta, Malappuram and Kozhikode.
Thiruvananthapuram reported 814 more cases, Malappuram 784, Kozhikode 690, Ernakulam 655, Thrissur 607, Kollam 569, Alapuzha 551, Kannur, 419, Palakkad 419, Kottayam 322, Kasaragod 268, Pathanamthitta 191, Idukki 114 and Wayanad 74 cases. The State identified 652 hotspots.
In a big cluster, 200 BSF personnel tested COVID-19 positive at the Border Security Force (BSF) training centre at Areekkarakkunnu near Nadapuram in Kozhikode district on Friday. Tests were conducted among 500 persons in the camp.
Health Department sources said a large scale antigen test was done on Friday as six persons in the camp had tested positive on Thursday. At the time of the second round of testing, only 19 persons had symptoms of the infection.
These symptomatic patients were admitted to First Line Treatment Centres under the Health Department at Nadapuram. Others were quarantined at the BSF camp.
Health Department sources said the camp had 900 persons. Antigen tests for the remaining 400 would be done on Saturday.
Andhra Pradesh recorded 7,073 new infections and 48 new deaths on Friday, and tested 69,429 more samples.
Currently, 67,683 patients were under treatment.
In all 54.47 lakh tests were carried out and the overall positivity rate was 12.14%, and in the past day, it was 10.19%.
East Godavari added over 1,000 new cases. At 1,031 infections, the district’s daily tally was the highest. It also reported two deaths.
The new cases and deaths in the other districts were: West Godavari (931 and 5), Prakasam (806 and 8), Chittoor (713 and 8), Guntur (533 and 2), Nellore (459 and 3), Anantapur (456 and 6), Srikakulam (430 and 1), Krishna (423 and 5), Vizianagaram (378 and 0), Kadapa (368 and 3), Visakhapatnam (340 and 3) and Kurnool (205 and 2).
Telangana recorded 2,381 cases on Thursday, taking the total to 1,81,627. Ten fatalities were recorded on Thursday.
While as many as 57,621 persons were tested, the reports of 1,659 were awaited.
The trend of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area recording the highest number of cases continued with 386 persons testing positive.
Karnataka on Friday reported 8,655 new cases and 86 fresh deaths.
Active cases continued to remain below one lakh at 98,474.
Bengaluru Urban reported 4,080 cases taking the total tally to 2,12,547. Also, 32 of the 86 deaths were in the city.
The State carried out 59,919 tests including 20,284 rapid antigen tests.
(With inputs from Vijayawada, Hyderabad and Bengaluru bureaus)
