Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala's COVID-19 case count reached 89,489 on Monday, with the state reporting 1,648 fresh cases. The state also registered 2,246 recoveries in the last 24 hours.
So far, 67,001 people recovered from the disease, while 22,066 patients are still under treatment in various hospitals across the state, Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaha said in a statement.
Local transmission of COVID-19 continues unabated as 1,495 of the newly reported cases contracted the virus through contact. Of this, the infection sources of 112 are unknown, the minister said.
Apart from this, 61 healthcare workers (30 from Kannur, 11 from Thiruvananthapuram, ten from Kasaragod, five from Thrissur, three from Pathanamthitta and two from Ernakulam) also contracted the virus.
Of the 1,648 cases reported on Monday, 29 people came from abroad, while 54 came from other states.
The minister also confirmed 12 more deaths on Monday, taking the official death toll to 359.
The deceased have been identified as Devaraj, 65, from Parassala in Thiruvananthapuram; Augustine, 78, from Pallippuram in Ernakulam; Damayandi, 54, from Paringamala in Thiruvananthapuram; Khalid,48, from Kattakada in Thiruvananthapuram; Harindrababu, 63, from Karinkulam in Thiruvananthapuram; Santhakumari, 68, from Manakkad in Thiruvananthapuram; Safiya Beevi, 68, from Manakkad in Thiruvananthapuram; Naseebath Beevi, 41, Peringamala in Thiruvananthapuram; Baby Paul, 73, from Kuryachira in Thrissur; Mohanan Unni Nair, 54, from Kozhikode; AbduRahman, 65, from Kallayi in Kozhikode and Yusuf, 68, from Kozhikode.
District-wise break-up of today's positive cases:
Kannur – 260
Thiruvananthapuram – 253
Malappuram – 187
Kottayam – 154
Kasaragod – 134
Ernakulam – 130
Thrissur – 128
Palakkad – 118
Kozhikode – 103
Alappuzha – 78
Kollam – 1
Pathanamthitta – 24
Idukki – 4
Wayanad – 4
District-wise break-up of recoveries:
Thiruvananthapuram – 614
Kozhikode – 278
Malappuram – 202
Ernakulam – 184
Thrissur – 155
Alappuzha – 132
Kollam – 131
Pathanamthitta – 123
Kottayam – 115
Palakkad – 95
Kasaragod – 95
Kannur – 70
Idukki – 32
Wayanad – 20
Low number of positive cases
The positive cases reported on Monday is much lower than the usual rate. This is due to the low number of testing in the last 24 hours. While 30,000 to 40,000 samples are sent for testing on regular days, on Monday, only 20,215 samples were sent for testing.
The state breached the 80K-mark on Friday, September 4, 219 days after it recorded the first case.
From January 30, 2020, when the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the state, 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 the 20,000 tally. The numbers doubled to 40K on August 14. On August 25, the numbers soared past 60K. In the next four days, 10,000 more cases were reported and the the tally crossed 70K on August 29.
Testing and quarantine
In total, 18,91,703 samples (including routine, airport surveillance, pooled sentinel, CBNAAT, TrueNAT, CLIA and antigen assay) were sent for testing. As many as 1,84,020 samples also collected as part of sentinel surveillance, it said.
Of the 2,00,651 people under observation for suspected infection, 1,82,521 are home/institutional quarantined and 18,130 hospitalised. As many as 2385 people were hospitalised since Sunday.
26 new places were designated as hotspots on Monday, while 8 LSGs were excluded from the list. The state presently has 575 hotspots.
