Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala recorded 4,034 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday after testing 69,604 samples.
With this, the test positivity rate further dropped to 5.80.
Meanwhile, 4,823 recoveries were also recorded in 24 hours, according to a release from the Kerala Health Minister.
A fresh case of the mutated UK variant of the virus was also detected in the state. The infected, a 72-year-old man, was in the primary contact list of a UK returnee in Kozhikode, who had earlier found to have contracted the virus variant.
So far, the state has reported 11 cases of the highly infection variant of coronavirus first identified in the United Kingdom.
No UK returnees have tested positive for Covid in the past 24 hours.
Of the new cases, 3,674 had contracted the virus through contact while 81 had come from outside the state. Among the contact cases, the source of infection of 258 is yet to be traced.
Twenty-one health workers too contracted the virus on the day.
With this, the number of active cases in the state reached 54,665.
The state has reported 10,40,903 COVID-19 infections so far. Of this, 9,81,835 recovered.
Fourteen COVID deaths too were confirmed. With this, COVID death toll rose to 4,119.
Though more deaths were reported, the state is yet to ascertain them as COVID deaths. Tests are underway at the National Institute of Virology in Alappuzha.
Here's the break-up of today's positive cases:
Ernakulam – 484 (454 contact cases)
Pathanamthitta – 430 (392)
Kollam – 408 (407)
Kottayam – 389 (353)
Thrissur – 386 (376)
Kozhikode – 357 (345)
Malappuram – 355 (333)
Alappuzha – 275 (270)
Thiruvananthapuram – 255 (190)
Kannur – 206 (153)
Palakkad – 147 (82)
Kasaragod – 140 (128)
Wayanad – 131 (126)
Idukki - 71 (65)
Recoveries:
Thiruvananthapuram – 367
Kollam – 342
Pathanamthitta – 581
Alappuzha – 381
Kottayam – 377
Idukki – 327
Ernakulam – 746
Thrissur – 351
Palakkad – 124
Malappuram – 272
Kozhikode – 521
Wayanad – 168
Kannur – 190
Kasaragod - 76
Testing and Quarantine
Till Tuesday, 1,11,37,843 samples (including routine, airport surveillance, pooled sentinel, CBNAAT, TrueNAT, CLIA and antigen assay) were sent for testing.
A total of 2,35,225 people are under observation across the state. Of them, 2,27,142 are under home or institutional quarantine while 8,083 are in hospital. A total of 784 were admitted in hospitals on Tuesday.
Four regions have been designated as hotspots while four were removed from the list. The total number of hotspots is at 372 in the state now.
