Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala's COVID-19 case count reached 8,25,769 on Wednesday, with the state reporting 6,004 fresh cases. The state also registered 5,158 recoveries since Tuesday.
One more UK returnee tested positive for coronavirus in the last 24 hours. In total, 56 people arrived from UK are under treatment. Their samples have been sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, for genomic analysis. So far, nine persons are confirmed to have infected with new UK variant coronavirus.
In the last 24 hours, 69,081 samples have been tested. In total, 86,20,873 samples (including routine, airport surveillance, pooled sentinel, CBNAAT, TrueNAT, CLIA and antigen assay) were sent for testing. The test positivity rate is 8.69.
So far, 7,56,817 people recovered from the disease, while 65,373 patients are still under treatment in various hospitals across the state, Health Minister K K Shailaja said in a statement.
Local transmission of COVID-19 continues unabated as 5,401 of the newly reported cases contracted the virus through contact. Of this, the infection sources of 477 are unknown, the minister said.
Apart from this, 53 healthcare workers (Ernakulam 12, Kozhikode 9, Thiruvananthapuram 7, Pathanamthitta and Kannur 6 each, Palakkad and Wayanad 4 each, Thrissur and Kasaragod 2 each, Kottayam 1) also contracted the virus.
The minister also confirmed 26 more deaths on Wednesday. The official death toll now stands at 3,373.
District-wise break-up of today's positive cases:
Ernakulam - 998 (contact cases - 914)
Kozhikode - 669 (642)
Kottayam - 589 (541)
Kollam- 528 (525)
Pathanamthitta - 448 (399)
Thrissur - 437 (424)
Alappuzha - 432 (424)
Malappuram - 409 (385)
Thiruvananthapuram - 386 (285)
Idukki - 284 (268)
Kannur - 259 (215)
Wayanad - 248 (234)
Palakkad - 225 (63)
Kasaragod - 92 (82)
District-wise break-up of recoveries:
Ernakulam - 906
Kozhikode - 573
Kottayam - 548
Thrissur - 518
Alappuzha - 487
Malappuram - 447
Pathanamthitta - 336
Thiruvananthapuram - 335
Kannur - 301
Kollam - 230
Palakkad - 212
Wayanad - 179
Idukki - 51
Kasaragod - 35
Of the 2,00,259 people under observation for suspected infection, 1,89,550 are home/institutional quarantined and 10,709 hospitalised. As many as 1,333 people were hospitalised since Tuesday.
Two new places were designated as hotspots on Wednesday, while 11 regions were excluded from the list. The state presently has 427 hotspots.
