Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala shattered its single-day record for new COVID-19 infections on Thursday with 1,564 cases, the Health department informed in a press statement.
The previous single-day record, 1,420, was recorded on August 8. The state is reporting over 1,000 cases for the tenth consecutive day.
Of the new cases, 1,380 persons, or 88%, acquired infections through contact. The source of infection of 98 among them is unknown. As many as 60 infected persons came from abroad while 100 came from other states.
The state has reported 39,708 COVID-19 cases so far, out of which 25,692 persons recovered. The remaining 13, 839 patients are being treated in various hospitals.
District-wise breakup of today's positive cases:
Thiruvananthapuram 434 (contact-428)
Palakkad 202 (159)
Malappuram 202 (180)
Ernakulam 115 (109)
Kozhikode 98 (83)
Kasragod 79 (71)
Pathanamthitta 75 (44)
Thrissur 75 (73)
Kollam 74 (64)
Alappuzha 72 (59)
Kottayam 53 (43)
Idukki 31 (19)
Kannur 27 (21)
Wayanad 27 (27)
District-wise breakup of recoveries:
Thiruvananthapuram 197
Ernakulam 109
Kollam 73
Alappuzha 70
Palakkad 67
Malappuram 61
Thrissur 47
Wayanad 30
Kasaragod 28
Kannur 25
Idukki 22
Kottayam 17
Kozhikode 12
Pathanamthitta 8
Fifteen health workers were tested COVID positive on Thursday (Thiruvananthapuram-5, Malappuram-4, Pathanamthitta-2, Kozhikode-2, one each in Kannur and Kasaragod).
Five ITBP personnel have tested positive in Alappuzha and four INHS employees tested positive in Ernakulam.
COVID deaths
The health department confirmed three COVID-19 deaths on Thursday. The deceased have been identified as Thiruvananthapuram Mukkola native Lissi Sajan, 55, Kozhikode Ramanattukara native Radhakrishnan, 80, and Abdul Rahman, 80 from Malappuram.
With this, the death toll has risen to 129 in the state.
More jail inmates test coronavirus positive
Forty-two more prisoners tested coronavirus positive in Poojappura Central Jail, Thiruvananthapuram.
Earlier on Wednesday, 59 prisoners were declared positive. After this incident, it was decided to conduct antigen testing in all jails in the state.
The total number of inmates testing positive for the virus reached 101 on Thursday.
Testing and quarantine
Out of the 1,53,061 people under observation, 1,40,378 are in home or institutional quarantine and 12,683 are in hospitals. 1,670 were admitted to hospitals on Thursday alone.
The number of samples tested in the last 24 hours have increased to 31,270. Out of the total of 10,87,722 samples sent for testing so far, results of 5,999 samples are yet to arrive. Out of the 1,43,085 samples sent for testing as part of the sentinel surveillance, results of 1,193 are awaited.
The state government has designated 16 new regions as hotspots and removed 12 places from the list on Thursday. Kerala has a total of 544 hotspots currently.
