Thiruvananthapuram: 903 persons tested positive for coronavirus and 641 patients were cured of COVID-19 in Kerala on Wednesday, the Health department informed in a press statement.
Of the new cases recorded on Wednesday, 706 contracted the disease through contact. The source of infection of 35 among them is unknown. Ninety infected persons came from abroad while 71 came from other states. Thirty health workers also tested positive in the state on Wednesday.
Malappuram native Kutti Hassan, 67, died of COVID-19 in the state on Wednesday. With this, the COVID death toll has risen to 68 in Kerala.
The state has reported 21,797 COVID-19 cases so far, out of which 11,369 persons recovered. The remaining 10,350 patients are being treated in various hospitals.
District-wise breakup of today's positive cases:
Thiruvananthapuram 213
Malappuram 87
Kollam 84
Ernakulam 83
Kozhikode 67
Pathanamthitta 54
Plakkad 49
Kasaragod 49
Wayanad 43
Kannur 42
Alappuzha 38
Idukki 34
Thrissur 31
Kottayam 29
District-wise breakup of patients cured:
Kollam 146
Thiruvananthapuram 126
Ernakulam 58
Thrissur 56
Pathanamthitta 41
Kasaragod 36
Alappuzha 35
Malappuram 34
Kozhikode 30
Kottayam 28
Idukki 20
Palakkad 19
Wayanad 9
Kannur 3
From when the first case was confirmed in the state on January 30, 2020, it took 168 days, or five-and-a-half months to reach the 10k-mark on July 16. However, it took only 12 more days to cross 20,000 cases.
Oldest patient recover
One of the oldest COVID patients in Kerala recovered from the illness on Wednesday. The 105-year-old Anchal native was admitted to the Kollam Medical College Hospital on July 20. A special medical team had been allotted for her treatment.
Malappuram Block Panchayat office closed after Joint Block Development Officer tests COVID positive. The officer had worked at the COVID care centre in Malappuram town. He rejoined work after a 14 day quarantine.
Testing and quarantine
Out of the 1,47,132 individuals under observation, 1,37,075 are in home or institutional quarantine and 10,057 are in hospitals. As many as 1,475 were admitted to hospitals on Wednesday.
In the last 24 hours, 23,924 samples were tested for COVID-19 in the state.
Out of the total 7,33,413 samples tested so far, results of 7,037 are yet to arrive.
A total of 1,19,019 samples were collected as part of the sentinel surveillance and 1,14,666 have returned negative.
The state government has declared 19 new hotspots and exempted 13 regions from the existing list of hotspots. With this, the number of hotspots have risen to 492 in Kerala.
From districts
No district other than Thiruvananthapuram reported more than 100 cases on Wednesday. Following Thiruvananthapuram 213 cases, Malappuram reported 87 cases.
Of the 87 cases, 51 contracted the disease through contact. The district again reported a higher number of cases without identified source of infection - 15. Twenty-one cases are people who returned from abroad and seven from other states.
In Kollam, 84 cases were confirmed. There are 77 contact cases among them. Thirteen people tested positive in Kadathoor near Kulasekharapuram. Nine cases were confirmed in Muslim Street, Kottarakkara.
Sixty-seven more cases were confirmed in Kozhikode. Of them, 59 are contact cases. Source has not been traced in three cases.
In Pathanamthitta, 54 people tested positive. Of them, 38 are contact cases.
Forty-nine cases were confirmed in Palakkad. There are 18 contact cases among them. Eleven of them are from Pattambi and nearby areas. The remaining 31 people came from abroad or other states.
Kasaragod also reported 49 cases. Of them, 39 are contact cases. Source is not known in four cases.
All the 43 cases reported in Wayanad are contact cases. Of them, 39 are from Valadu.
Of the 35 cases reported in Alappuzha, 32 are contact cases. In Idukki, 34 cases were confirmed. Of them, 25 are contact cases. Source of infection is not known in the case of an Elappara native who is a driver at KSRTC's Palakkad depot.
Twenty-nine cases were confirmed in Kottayam. Of them, 27 contracted the virus through contact. Most of the cases were reported in Athirampuzha and Vazhappally panchayats (six each).
